Collected lumber, process for producing collected lumber and collected lumber producing device

ABSTRACT

The collected lumber of the present invention is formed by heating and softening a plurality of woods, applying adhesive on the woods, pressing and compressing the wood with adhesive thereon to mold the integral body in a prescribed shape, and by fixation treating the integral body using a heating device. The method for manufacturing collected lumber of this invention comprises the first process for softening woods by heat treating a plurality of woods, the second process for applying adhesive on the softened woods, the third process for forming integral body by pressing and compressing the woods applied with the adhesive to mold in a prescribed shape, and the fourth process for fixation treating the integral body using a heating device. 
     By collecting and fixing a plurality of woods comprising thinned-out woods which is not worth using, the wood products which exhibits various excellent grain pattern and is used for wide range of building materials are manufactured, and the enhanced productivity is attained by shortening of curing time of collected wood to realize low cost collected lumber and process for manufacturing the collected lumber.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a collected lumber capable of performing aneffective utilization of thinned-out woods with a small diameter or ashort length and scrap material cut and removed during a growing stageof Sugi (Cryptmeria japonica D. Don), Japanese cypress and the like, aprocess for producing the collected lumber and, more particularly, to acollected lumber and a process for producing the collected lumber ofinexpensive cost which can be used in a wide range of buildingmaterials, can shorten an aging period of the collected lumber after thewoods are collected, and further improve its productivity.

In addition, the present invention relates to a process for producingcollected lumbers or the like having various shapes such as a curvedshape, a linear shape and the like in which they can be collected fromeach other into a predetermined shape without being influenced by eachof the shapes and without producing any gaps between each of thethinned-out woods.

In addition, the present invention relates to a collected lumber havinga high strength which can be used in a wide range of building materialsand has a low cost, and to a process for producing the collected lumber.

Further, the present invention relates to wood building materials withfine straight grain and of low cost which can be highly valued as floormaterial, wall material or the like, and to a process for producing thewood building materials.

Still further, the present invention relates to a collected lumber oflow cost, capable of maintaining the annual rings stored in each of thethinned-out woods at an end surface of the collected lumber while beingmolded into various shapes, realizing a specific effect in design, beingused in various wide ranges of applications and concurrently applyingvarious superior characteristics of the collected lumber aftercollecting the woods to each of the applications and thus improving itsproductivity by shortening the aging period.

In addition, the present invention relates to woods, bamboos and theircollected lumbers in which the annual rings in each of the thinned-outwoods can be left at the end of the collected lumbers while beingmolded, whereby a specific design effect can be realized, a surface withhigh hardness and high abrasion resistance can be attained and they canbe applied over various wide ranges.

Additionally, the present invention relates to a device for producing acollected lumber capable of performing an effective utilization ofthinned-out wood of small diameter or short length material and scrapmaterial removed during a growing step of Sugi (Cryptmeria japonicaD.Don) or Japanese cypress or the like and, more particularly, to avehicle-carried type apparatus for manufacturing a collected lumberwhich can move up to a producing center of wood at a destination ofcarrying out of the thinned-out wood, produce the collected lumber fromthe thinned-out woods at the destination of carrying out so as to shipthe collected lumber.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

(1) In general, although Sugi (Cryptmeria japonica D. Don) or Japanesecypress or the like are frequently utilized as building materials, theyare inherently soft materials to show a low rigidity, whereby theirapplicable range has been limited by themselves. In particular,thinned-out woods removed during a growing step of Sugi (Cryptmeriajaponica D. Don) or Japanese cypress or the like were of small diameter,and additionally, they were frequently soft and curved, so that suchthinned-out woods could hardly be used as building materials, forexample, pillars or the like.

In order to perform the effective utilization of such thinned-out woods,various processes have been proposed in the prior art. For example, inJapanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-231802 is disclosed a process forimproving a quality of wood by a process wherein the woods are spreadwithin water vapor and softened, thereafter they are compressivelymolded under a condition of high pressure and the molding of the woodsis fixed. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 3-97503provides a description of a process for processing the woods in whichwhen the woods are softened, they are softened under a high-frequencyheating, thereafter the woods are applied with pressure. In addition,Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-116112 provides a description of acompound wood pillar material in which a plurality of thinned-out woodsare chamfered in advance to make wedge-shaped square wood pillarmaterials and each of the square wood pillar materials is assembledwhile being bonded through an adhesive.

However, the process for processing woods described in each of JapanesePatent Laid-Open Nos. Hei 3-231802 and Hei 3-97503 is carried out insuch a manner that the thinned-out woods are softened, thereafter theyare compressed to improve their quality, although this processingprocess is merely applied for processing every thinned-out wood.Accordingly, these prior arts can improve the quality of thinned-outwoods having a low value of use and perform an effective utilization ofbuilding materials, although a scope of utilization as thinned-outwoods, quality of which is improved cannot be applied to a wide range ofbuilding materials in view of the fact that the thinned-out woods areshort diameter logs. In addition, a plurality of thinned-out woodscannot be processed concurrently in their quality improvement (so-calledbatch treatment).

In addition, although the compound wood pillar material described in theaforesaid Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-116112 is constructed suchthat a plurality of thinned-out woods are assembled while adhering toeach other through an adhesive, it is necessary to chamfer each of thethinned-out woods in advance to make them as wedge-shaped square woodpillar material so as to form a shape of the compound wood pillarmaterial into a predetermined shape (for example, a square shape). Asdescribed above, it was a quite troublesome operation to perform achamfering in advance for each of the thinned-out woods and there was aproblem that its cost was high as this work was performed.

(2) In addition, in the prior art, there were present various kinds oflaminated lumbers, and for example, the laminated lumber fornon-structural members, the glued laminated lumber for structuralmembers or the like are widely utilized as materials for woodarchitecture such as residential building and the like. This type oflaminated lumber is produced by piling up the lamina or piling up theabutted members through various vertical joint processes (for example,there are vertical joint processes such as scarf joint and a fingerjoint). In addition, after a plurality of veneers are formed from arelative large log, the laminated lumber which can be obtained by pilingup each of the veneers through a hot press or the like is also widelyutilized in various applications.

The aforesaid laminated lumber requires as its raw material a relativelarge log, and it is necessary to produce the laminated lumber through aseries of steps such as a step for forming a plurality of laminas orveneers from such woods as above, a vertical relative joint step foreach of the laminas and a piling-up step for piling up each of laminasor veneers. In this case, it is frequently found that the large log canbe utilized in other applications and the aforesaid plurality of stepsare required, so that productivity for the laminated lumber is low,resulting in that this lumber causes a high manufacturing cost. Undersuch a condition as above, it is desired to utilize the short diameterlog such as thinned-out woods removed during growing step, e.g., Sugi(Cryptmeria japonica D. Don) and Japanese cypress or the like havingless value in utilization.

In view of this fact, although various kinds of processes are proposedas described above in order to perform an effective utilization of thethinned-out woods as building materials which are quite soft andfrequently curved, the thinned-out woods, quality of which is improvedthrough the processing methods described in the aforesaid JapanesePatent Laid-Open Nos. Hei 3-231802 and 3-97503 cannot be utilized over awide range as the building materials such as laminated lumbers. Inaddition, as described above, the compound wood pillar materialdescribed in the aforesaid Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-116112needed a complex troublesome work in which each of the thinned-out woodsis chamfered in advance, so that there remained a problem that its costbecomes high.

In addition, it was difficult to make a mutually vertical joint betweenthe thinned-out woods (to abut the thinned-out woods in theirlongitudinal direction) and so there was a problem that the laminatedlumber more than a length of the thinned-out wood cannot be obtained.

(3) In addition, in general, the plate material having a fine straightgrain is used as a high class interior finishing material such as floorand wall materials. The straight grain in such a plate material as aboveappears due to the annual rings stored in the wood, the cut wood isfurther cut along its longitudinal direction and can be attained on thesurface of the plate material. In order to get the plate material havingsuch a straight grain as above, it is generally necessary to use thewood having a relatively large diameter.

In such a case as above, the wood having a large diameter is quiteexpensive and accordingly the plate material having a straight grain isnecessarily expensive to cause a high cost. Since the plate materialhaving a straight grain is utilized by cutting the most suitable portionin the large diameter log, resulting in that there occurs a problem ingetting an effective utilization of the log and so this state isopposite to the trend of saving natural resources in recent years.

In addition, in general, although conifer such as Sugi (Cryptimeriajaponica D. Don) or Japanese cypress or the like is frequently utilizedas building material, they are naturally soft woods and have lowrigidity, they are not sufficiently hard as flooring material on which aperson walks on bare foot, for example, and so a certain limitation hasbeen applied by themselves to their applicable scope in use. Inparticular, the thinned-out woods removed during the process of growingof Sugi (Cryptmeria japonica D. Don), Japanese cypress and the like areshort diameter woods, a depth of abrasion in an abrasion A test with theflooring defined by JAS (Japanese Agricultural and Forestry Standards)is 220 μm or more, they are frequently quite soft and curved, resultingin that such thinned-out woods as above could not almost be utilized asbuilding materials.

In addition, bamboo shows a faster growing rate as compared with that ofwoods and irrespective of the fact that the bamboo is full in its volumeas latent natural resources, there still remain some problems in itsstrength, machining characteristics and design and so it was difficultto apply it as building material.

Under such a situation as above, it is desired to utilize the shortdiameter woods removed during the process of growing of Sugi (Cryptmeriajaponica D. Don), Japanese cypress and the like and various processeshave been proposed as described above in order to perform effectiveutilization of the thinned-out woods in the prior art. However, theprocess for processing log described in each of the aforesaid JapanesePatent Laid-Open Nos. Hei 3-231802 and 3-97503 is carried out such thatthe thinned-out woods are softened, thereafter pressed and its qualityimproving processing is carried out for every thinned-out wood, and inparticular, these prior-art processes do not intend to produce a platematerial having a straight grain and the process for performing thisoperation is not suggested or disclosed.

Also in the case of the compound wood pillar material described in theaforesaid Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 5-116112, it does not aim atgetting the plate material having a straight grain in the same manner asthe processing process described in each of the aforesaid gazettes, andthe process for getting such a plate material is not suggested ordisclosed at all. In addition, the compound wood pillar material asdescribed above is constructed such that a plurality of thinned-outwoods are assembled to each other through the adhesive, although each ofthe thinned-out woods is not pressed or compressed into itspredetermined shape during assembling operation, resulting in that theannual rings of each of the thinned-out woods are merely left in thestate of concentric circles at the end surface (end of lumber) of theassembled compound wood pillar material. In view of the fact above, thiskind of compound wood pillar material does not realize a specific designeffect in particular, also still remains as a soft material, merely hasa low hardness only and there is no change at all in its characteristic.As a result, such a wood pillar material as above except the buildingmaterial such as pillar material cannot be utilized in a wide scope ofapplication.

(4) In addition, in general, the thinned-out short diameter woodsremoved during a process of growing of Sugi (Cryptmeria japonica D. Don)or Japanese cypress have a low value in their application and are lowvalue-added products, so that an economic value corresponding to theirtransportation and shipping costs cannot be attained and they are leftat present in mountains or forests while not being utilized.

Accordingly, if various kinds of products such as collected woods areproduced or provided by utilizing these short diameter thinned-out woodsunder the application of the aforesaid prior art, it would be necessaryto construct a producing factory for the collected lumber at a producingcenter of wood where short diameter thinned-out woods are left, to makethem into a product and then to ship it or it would be necessary totransport the thinned-out woods from the producing center of wood to aproducing factory having a producing facility installed, to make it intoa product at the producing factory and to ship it.

In view of the fact above, if the producing factory for the collectedlumbers utilizing the thinned-out woods is constructed near adestination site, unrecovered transportation cost produced bytransporting the thinned-out woods of low added value can besubstantially reduced and concurrently the collected lumber of highadded value can be directly shipped from the destination site in placeof the thinned-out woods of low value-added product. In turn, thereremain problems that it is actually and technically hard to constructthe producing factory near the destination site where the woods are cut,it takes a high construction cost and the existing producing factorycannot be used for this operation.

In turn, if after the thinned-out woods are transported from thedestination site to a far distance producing factory completelyinstalled with a producing facility, the collected lumbers or the likeare produced at the producing factory and shipped from it, although theexisting producing factory can be used for the operation, thethinned-out woods left in the mountain or forest due to their lowvalue-added material must be transported, resulting in that a surplustransportation cost caused by transporting the thinned-out woods to theproducing factory and so it cannot be avoided to replace thetransportation cost with the product cost and recover it. Accordingly,there remains a problem that an inexpensive collected lumber cannot beprovided even if low cost thinned-out woods are utilized as rawmaterials.

Further, the prior art looking at only the fact of inexpensivethinned-out woods applied as raw material and trying to produce a highvalue-added product with the thinned-out woods still had a problem thata matter of transportation cost generated when the thinned-out woods areactually used as raw material is not yet solved.

(5) This invention has been completed in order to solve each of theproblems found in the prior art and it is a first object of the presentinvention to provide a low cost collected lumber and a process forproducing the collected lumber in which a plurality of woods composed ofthinned-out woods or the like are collected and fixed to each other asrequired, whereby they can be used over a wide scope of buildingmaterials, an aging of the collected lumber can be shortened and thentheir productivity can be improved.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a process forproducing a collected lumber, capable of producing a low cost collectedlumber in which some thinned-out woods having various shapes such ascurved shape and straight shape can be collected together in apredetermined shape without being influenced by each of the shapes andwithout producing any clearance between each of the thinned-out woods,they can be used over a wide range of building materials andconcurrently an aging of the collected lumber after the woods arecollected is shortened to improve productivity.

It is a third object of the present invention to provide a collectedlumber and a process for producing the collected lumber having a highstrength and stability in size and capable of being used over a widerange of building materials by a process wherein a plurality of logscomposed of thinned-out woods or the like are collected and each of thelogs is rigidly fixed in any of a diametrical direction and alongitudinal direction of the thinned-out woods.

In addition, it is a fourth object of the present invention to provide awood building material having a straight grain of low cost and capableof being used as various high-class building materials and a process forproducing the wood building material while precious resources are beingeffectively utilized by using the thinned-out woods having lowutilization value.

In addition, it is a fifth object of the present invention to provide acollected lumber of low cost in which annual rings found in each of thethinned-out woods are left at the end surface of the collected lumberwhile being molded into various shapes, whereby a specific design effectcan be realized, it can be used over various wide ranges ofapplications, and the logs having a low utilization value by themselvesare collected to improve various characteristics tremendously andconcurrently an aging of the collected lumber is shortened so as toimprove its productivity.

It is a sixth object of the present invention to provide a low costcollected lumber in which annual rings found in each of the thinned-outwoods are left at the end of the collected lumber while being moldedinto various shapes, whereby a specific design effect can be realized,it can be used over various wide ranges of applications, conifer logs oflow utilization value by themselves are collected to cause the surfacecharacteristic to be remarkably improved to have a high hardness andconcurrently an aging of the collected lumber can be shortened toimprove its productivity.

It is a seventh object of the present invention to provide a low costcollected lumber in which annual rings found in each of the thinned-outwoods are left at the end of the collected lumber while being moldedinto various shapes, thereby a specific design effect can be realized,it can be used over various wide ranges of applications, conifer logs oflow utilization value by themselves are collected to cause the surfacecharacteristic to be remarkably improved to have high abrasionresistance and concurrently an aging of the collected lumber can beshortened to improve its productivity.

In addition, it is an eighth object of the present invention to providean apparatus for manufacturing a collected lumber, which can manufacturea collected lumber without transporting the thinned-out woods, eliminateinstallation cost and can be moved, and to provide a low cost collectedlumber in which the thinned-out woods of low added value can be directlyshipped as collected lumber of high value-added product and utilizationof the thinned-out woods is promoted.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

(1) A collected lumber of the present invention for accomplishing thethe aforesaid first object comprises a plurality of plasticized woodswhich has been compressively molded in a predetermined shape with anadhesive layer on surfaces of the woods. A process for producing acollected lumber, comprises: a first step of treating a plurality ofwoods with water vapor under high-temperature and high-pressureconditions to soften the woods; a second step of spreading an adhesiveon surfaces of the softened woods; and a third step of compressing theadhesive-spread woods to form the woods into a predetermined shape.Otherwise, a process for producing a collected lumber, comprises: afirst step of treating a plurality of woods with water vapor underhigh-temperature and high-pressure conditions to soften the woods, thewoods having preliminarily been spread with an adhesive; and a secondstep of compressing the adhesive-spread woods to form the woods into apredetermined shape.

The collected lumber of the present invention having the aforesaidconfiguration is softened with water vapor under high-temperature andhigh-pressure and thus can be easily plasticized and molded under aspecified pressure. Accordingly, it is possible to increase a contactsurface between the short diameter logs during the compressing step andto form an integrated collected lumber. This collected lumber has afeature that a residual stress generated during the compressing step isscarcely left in the collected lumber by rearranging cellulose moleculesor the adhesive in atmosphere of water vapor.

In the former producing process, a plurality of woods are treated withwater vapor under high-temperature and high-pressure during the firststep. Each of the woods is softened with water vapor processing. Afterthis operation, adhesive is sprayed onto the surface of each of thewoods softened at the second step. In this case, the adhesive is usedfor connecting the woods to each other. In addition, after completion ofthe second step, each of the woods sprayed with the adhesive in thethird step is compressed into a predetermined shape. With such anarrangement as above, the collected lumber is produced.

In addition, in the case of latter producing method, the plurality ofwoods spread with the adhesive in advance in the first step areprocessed with water vapor under high-temperature and high-pressure soas to soften each of the woods. In the subsequent second step, each ofthe woods spread with the aforesaid adhesive is compressed to form intoa predetermined shape. In this way, the adhesive is spread to the woodsbefore plasticization with water vapor processing, resulting in that anamount of the adhesive to be spread can be easily monitored.

In case of the collected lumber produced as described above, theplurality of woods adhere to each other through the adhesive, the numberof woods to be used is properly selected to enable the collected lumberwhich can be produced over a wide range of building materials to beproduced. In addition, since the woods are connected with the adhesive,the adhesive is dried and after this drying state, the woods can be usedas the building materials at an early time, thereby a residual stress inthe collected lumber can be taken, and an aging of the collected lumbercan be shortened to improve its productivity. In addition, each of thewoods to be used in the collected lumber does not need any pre-treatmentsuch as chamfering in particular, so that it becomes possible torestrict the collected lumber and its producing cost.

A collected lumber of the present invention fork accomplishing the firstobject in the same manner as that above is produced by heating aplurality of woods to soften the woods, compressing the softened woodsin the presence of an adhesive on surfaces of the woods to form acollected body having a predetermined shape, and subjecting thecollected body to a fixation treatment using a heating device.

A process for producing a collected lumber, comprises: a first step oftreating a plurality of woods with water vapor under high-temperatureand high-pressure conditions to soften the woods; a second step ofspreading an adhesive on surfaces of the softened woods; and a thirdstep of compressing the adhesive-spread woods to form the woods into apredetermined shape. A process for producing a collected lumber,comprises: a first step of treating a plurality of woods with watervapor under high-temperature and high-pressure conditions to soften thewoods, the woods having preliminarily been spread with an adhesive; anda second step of compressing the adhesive-spread woods to form the woodsinto a predetermined shape. A process for producing a collected lumber,comprises: a first step of heating a plurality of woods to soften thewoods; a second step of spreading an adhesive on surfaces of thesoftened woods; a third step of compressing the adhesive-spread woods toform a collected body having a predetermined shape; and a fourth step ofsubjecting the collected body to a fixation treatment using a heatingdevice. At this time, the heating treatment for softening each of thewoods is carried out with water vapor heating, heating water orhigh-frequency heating. In addition, the fixation treatment by theheating device is carried out such that the collected lumber is heatedby heating water vapor or a heater.

The collected lumber of the present invention having the aforesaidconfiguration is treated with a fixation treatment through the heatingdevice to the collected body in which each of the plurality of woodssoftened with a heating treatment is compressed into a predeterminedshape while an adhesive being spread to the surfaces of each of thewoods, so that a contact area between the woods is increased during thecompressing step while the woods are easily plasticized when softened soas to obtain the integral collected body. Since the collected lumberdescribed above is constructed such that the plurality of woods arefixed to each other through the adhesive and fixed and then it becomespossible to use them over a wide range of building materials. Inaddition, since the collected lumber is further treated with a fixationtreatment under high-temperature for the collected body formed into apredetermined shape through compressing, stability in size can beimproved, and concurrently an aging of the collected lumber can beshortened, its productivity is also improved and then the collectedlumber of inexpensive cost can be obtained.

In addition, in the process for producing the collected lumber of thepresent invention, the plurality of woods are heat-treated at the firststep. Each of the woods is softened through this heating treatment andthen the wood becomes easily plasticized and molded. At this time, as aprocess for heating each of the woods, various kinds of processes can beapplied, wherein a heat treatment with the water vapor heating, aheating treatment in heating water and also a heating treatment withhigh-frequency heating can be applied. According to each of theseheating processes, a relative large amount of woods can be heat-treatedat a time.

After the first step, the adhesive is spread on the surface of each ofthe softened woods at the second step. In this case, the adhesive isused for fixing the woods to each other. In addition, after completionof the second step, each of the woods spread with the adhesive asdescribed above is compressed into a predetermined shape at the thirdstep so as to form a collected body having a plurality of woodsintegrally assembled. In addition, at the fourth step, the collectedbody formed in this way is fixed at a temperature higher than that atthe first step through the heating device for use in heating thecollected body with heating water vapor or a heater,whereby thecollected lumber is produced.

The collected lumber produced as above is constructed such that theplurality of woods are fixed to each other through the adhesive, so thata proper selection of the number of woods to be used enables thecollected lumber applicable to a wide range of building materials to beproduced. Additionally, each of the woods is fixed through the adhesive,thereafter the fixation treatment is applied through the heating device,so that the collected lumber can become a state in which the lumber canbe used at an early stage as a building material excellent in stabilityin size, whereby the residual stress in the collected lumber can beeliminated, its aging can be shortened and its productivity can beimproved. In addition, each of the woods used in the collected lumber issufficiently adapted by a log by itself, and in particular, a machiningoperation of chamfering or the like is not required, so that it becomespossible to restrict the cost of the collected lumber and its producingcost to a quite low value, respectively.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, the plurality ofwoods comprised of thinned-out woods or the like are collected and fixedwhile their barks being left on the woods or being barked, whereby afree design showing a variation in the grain can be realized, the woodscan be used in a wide range of building materials, and concurrently anaging of the collected lumber can be shortened to improve itsproductivity, resulting in that the collected lumber and the process forproducing the collected lumber can be provided.

(2) In addition, a process for producing a collected lumber according tothe present invention for accomplishing the aforesaid second object,comprises: a first step of softening a plurality of woods one by one ormore than one wood at a time and compressing the softened woods to formthe woods into a predetermined shape; a second step of spreading anadhesive on surfaces of the woods; and a third step of laminating theadhesive-spread woods and subjecting the resulting laminate to afixation treatment using a heating device. In addition, a process forproducing a collected lumber according to the present invention,comprises: a first step of softening a plurality of woods one by one ormore than one wood at a time and compressing the softened woods to formthe woods into a predetermined shape; a second step of subjecting thewoods to a fixation treatment using a heating device; a third step ofspreading an adhesive on surfaces of the woods; and a fourth step oflaminating the adhesive-spread woods and forming the resulting laminatewhile curing the adhesive.

According to the former producing process of the present inventionhaving the aforesaid configuration, the woods are softened one by one ormore than one wood, thereafter pressed, and each of the woods is formedinto a predetermined shape. At this time, as the process for softeningthe woods, various processes can be applied, wherein the heatingtreatment with water vapor heating, the heating treatment in the heatingwater and the heating treatment with high-frequency heating can beapplied. According to each of these softening treatment processes, arelative large amount of woods can be softened at a time. Each of thewoods is softened through such a softening process as above into easilyplasticizable and deformable state, each of the woods is compressed intoa predetermined shape. As described above, each of the woods is formedinto a predetermined shape and the plurality of woods can be collectedtogether into a predetermined shape without being influenced by theshape of each of the woods before its compressing and without producingany gap between the woods.

After the first step, and at the second step, the adhesive is spread onthe surface of each of the softened woods. In this case, the adhesive isused for connecting the logs to each other.

In addition, after completion of the second step and at the third step,each of the woods spread with the adhesive is laminated on each otherand the fixation treatment is carried out at a temperature higher thanthat of the first step through the heating device for performing theheating treatment by heating water vapor or a heater. With such aprocess as above, the collected lumber is produced.

According to the producing process of the aforesaid latter invention,the woods are softened one by one or more than one woods in the firststep, then they are compressed and each of the woods is formed into apredetermined shape. At this time, as a process for softening treatment,the heating treatment with heating water vapor, heating treatment inheated water and heating treatment with high frequency can be applied inthe same manner as that of the aforesaid former invention, and so, arelative large amount of woods can be softened at a time. Each of thewoods is softened through such a softening treatment, it can easilybecome a plasticizable and deformable state, each of the woods iscompressed into a predetermined shape. At this time, when each of thewoods is collected into a predetermined shape, it is not influenced bythe shape of each of the woods before its compressing treatment in thesame manner as that of the aforesaid former invention and no clearanceis generated between each of the woods.

In the subsequent second step, each of the woods softened as describedabove is fixed at the temperature higher than that of the first stepthrough heating water vapor, a high-frequency heating device, or aheater. In addition, at the third step, the adhesive is spread on thesurface of each of the woods fixed. In this case, the adhesive is usedfor fixing each of the woods to each other. In addition, at the fourthstep, each of the woods spread with the adhesive is laminated on eachother and they are formed while the adhesive being cured. With such anarrangement as above, the collected lumber is produced.

As described above, the collected lumber produced by the aforesaidformer invention is constructed such that each of the plurality of woodsis fixed to each other through the adhesive, thereafter fixed, and inthe case of the collected lumber produced by the latter invention, eachof the plurality of woods is fixed and then connected to each otherthrough the adhesive, so that a proper selection of the number of woodsto be used enables the collected lumber to be used for a wide range ofbuilding materials of various sizes. In addition, since a fixationtreatment is applied through the heating device in any one of theaforesaid producing processes, the collected lumber can be used at earlystage as a building material having stability in size, whereby aresidual stress in the collected lumber can be eliminated, an aging canbe shortened and its productivity can be improved. In addition, each ofthe woods used in the collected lumber may well be adapted by log itselfand it does not require any particular machining such as chamfering, sothat it becomes possible to restrict the collected lumber and itsproduction cost to a remarkable low value.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, it is possible toprovide a process for producing a collected lumber in which thethinned-out woods having various shapes such as a curved shape, astraight linear line or can be collected together into a predeterminedshape under their specific condition without being influenced by theshapes and without producing any gap between the thinned-out woods,whereby they can be used over a wide range of building materials, anaging of the collected lumber after collecting the woods can beshortened to improve productivity so as to obtain a collected lumber ata low cost.

(3) Further, a collected lumber of the present invention foraccomplishing the aforesaid third object is produced by heating aplurality of woods to soften the woods, compressing the softened woodsin the presence therebetween of a reinforcing member for interconnectionof the woods and an adhesive to thereby form the woods into apredetermined shape, and subjecting the formed wood body to a fixationtreatment using a heating device. A process for producing a collectedlumber according to the present invention, comprises: a first step ofheating a plurality of woods to soften the woods; a second step ofplacing a reinforcing member for interconnection of the woods betweenthe woods and spreading an adhesive on surfaces of the woods; a thirdstep of compressing the adhesive-spread woods together with thereinforcing member for interconnection to form the woods into apredetermined shape; and a fourth step of subjecting the compressedwoods to a fixation treatment using a heating device. In this case, theheating device for fixation treatment uses heating water vapor forheating the woods.

The collected lumber of the present invention having the aforesaidconfiguration is produced such that when the plurality of woods arecompressed, the woods is compressed into a predetermined shape while thereinforcing members for reinforcing the woods and the adhesive are beingspread between the woods softened through heating treatment. At thistime, since the reinforcing members and the adhesive are spread betweenthe woods, the woods themselves can be rigidly fixed not only in theradial direction but also in the longitudinal direction, respectively.Then, the fixation treatment is carried out using the heating device andthe woods are permanently held at the predetermined shape.

In addition, the producing process of the collected lumber of thepresent invention is carried out such that each of the plurality ofwoods is heated and then softened. After this treatment, at the secondstep, the reinforcing members for reinforcing the woods are spreadbetween the softened woods and further the adhesive is spread on thesurface of the woods. Then, at the third step, each of the woods spreadwith the adhesive and having a plurality of reinforcing memberstherebetween is compressed into a predetermined shape, and in addition,at the fourth step, the fixation treatment is applied at a temperaturehigher than that of the first step to the woods after being compressed,using heating water vapor or a heating device for heating the woodsthrough its heater.

In the case of the collected lumber obtained producing method asdescribed above, the woods are rigidly fixed to each other in any of theradial direction and the longitudinal direction, whereby according tothe present producing method, it is possible to obtain the collectedlumber having a high strength and capable of being used over a widerange of building materials at a low cost.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, it is possible toprovide the collected lumber at a low cost, capable of realizing a freedesign showing variation in grain, having a high strength and being usedover a wide range of building materials and to provide a process forproducing the collected lumber by a process wherein the plurality ofwoods composed of thinned-out woods or the like are collected and thewoods are rigidly fixed in any one of the radial direction and thelongitudinal direction of the thinned-out woods.

(4) In addition, a wood building material of the present invention toaccomplish the aforesaid fourth object is produced such that a straightgrain in a compressively molded shape is exposed on at least one face ofthe piece of wood by a process where wood pieces cut at a plurality ofpositions of the wood in its longitudinal direction are softened throughheating treatment, compressed into a predetermined shape, thereafter afixation treatment is applied to cause them to be processed at hightemperatures to fix their shapes and to prevent them from beingrecovered back to their original shapes. In addition, the plurality ofwood pieces processed by the aforesaid fixation treatment may belaminated using the adhesive, and then, clamped to each other underpressing.

In addition, a process for producing a wood building material accordingto the present invention, comprises: a first step of cutting a woodlongitudinally at a plurality of positions to obtain a piece of wood; asecond step of heating the piece of wood to soften the piece of wood; athird step of compressively molding the softened piece of wood into apredetermined shape; and a fourth step of subjecting the compressivelymolded piece of wood to a fixation treatment, with a straight grainexposed on at least one face of the piece of wood. Furthermore, theprocess may comprise a step of laminating the plurality of pieces ofwood after fixation treatment in the presence of an adhesive, andclamping the laminated pieces of wood under pressing.

At this time, the heating treatment for softening each of the woods iscarried out with water vapor heating, heating water or high-frequencyheating. In addition, the fixation treatment for permanently formingeach of the woods is carried out by heating each of the formed woods byheating water vapor, high-frequency heating, or a heater.

The wood building materials of the present invention having theaforesaid configuration can be obtained by softening through the heattreatment of the wood pieces cut at the plurality of positions in thewood in the longitudinal direction of it, by compressing it into apredetermined shape and further by applying the fixation treatment toit. Such a wood as described above is constructed such that a straightgrain is exposed at least at one face of the wood pieces, thereby itbecomes possible to use the wood in various applications such as aflooring material, a wall material and a ceiling material.

In addition, the wood is constructed such that a plurality of woodpieces processed with the fixation treatment as described above arelaminated on each other through the adhesive, clamped to each otherunder pressing, wherein a straight grain in each of the wood pieces isexposed. In this way, the plurality of wood pieces are collected to eachother through the adhesive and fixed to each other, whereby the straightgrain is entirely exposed there, resulting in that the collected lumbercan be used as a high-class building material over a wide range ofapplication. In addition, in accordance with a process for producing thewood building material of the present invention, the wood is cut at aplurality of positions thereof in a longitudinal direction at the firststep so as to obtain the wood pieces. At the second step, the woodpieces are softened by performing a heating treatment for the woodpieces. Various processes can be applied for such a heating treatment asabove, wherein some heating processes such as a heating treatment withwater vapor heating, a heating treatment in heated water andhigh-frequency heating can be applied. The wood pieces are softenedthrough heating treatment and the wood pieces may easily be plasticizedand molded.

In addition, at the third step, the softened wood pieces are compressedinto a predetermined shape. Subsequently to the third step, the fixationtreatment is carried out at the fourth step with a straight grain beingexposed at least at one end face of the compressed wood pieces throughheating water vapor or a heater. With such an arrangement as above, thewood pieces can be held permanently with their fixed state.

In the process for producing the wood building materials of the presentinvention, the plurality of wood pieces processed with fixationtreatment as described above are laminated on each other through theadhesive, to be clamped under pressing. With such an arrangement asabove, the wood building materials having a plurality of wood pieces areproduced while each of the straight grains in each of the wood pieces isbeing exposed.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, it is possible toprovide the wood building materials having a straight grain in which alow cost, mechanical characteristic, thermal characteristic, abrasionresistance, chemical resistance, corrosion resistance, a stability insize can be improved, and further short diameter logs can be used asvarious kinds of high-class building materials while the thinned-outwoods having a low utilization value are being used to promote aneffective utilization of precious resources of forest, and the processfor producing the wood building materials.

(5) In addition, the collected lumber of the present invention foraccomplishing the aforesaid fifth object discloses that a plurality ofwoods are compressed into a predetermined shape while the surface ofeach of the plurality of woods softened through a heating treatment asone means is being spread with an adhesive, wherein a collected bodyhaving a material formed into a predetermined shape being processed withfixation treatment is the most preferable one in particular, and theannual rings of each of the woods are being left at the end faces ofthese collected bodies in various molded states of shape.

The collected body of the present invention having the aforesaidconfiguration is constructed such that a plurality of woods arecompressed into a predetermined shape while the adhesive being spread atthe surfaces of the plurality of woods softened by a heating treatment,and more preferably a fixation treatment is applied to cause the shapeof the woods to be fixed under high-temperature treatment and not toreturn back to their original shape, the annual rings of each of thewoods are left at an end face of the collected body while being moldedinto various shapes. Accordingly, since the annual rings of each of thewoods are left at the end face of the collected lumber while beingmolded into various shapes, a specific design effect can be realized bycombining a diameter of the wood to be used with the kind of wood suchas a broad-leafed tree or conifer or the like. With such an arrangementas above, such a collected lumber as described above can be utilizedover various wide ranges under utilization of its design effect.

In addition, when each of the woods is softened, a contact surface areabetween the woods is increased while each of the woods is beingplastically and easily molded so as to get an integral collected lumber.Various characteristics can be freely changed during this compressingstage by varying a percentage of compression set. In such a collectedlumber, a plurality of woods adhere to each other and fixed through theadhesive, so that they show a higher density and a higher strength ascompared with those of non-processed woods, resulting in that theirabrasion resistance, chemical resistance, corrosion resistance andstability in size and the like can be improved, and they can be usedover a wide range of building materials, for example. In addition, sincethe collected lumber compressed into a predetermined shape is treatedwith a fixation treatment, an aging of the collected lumber can beshortened to improve its productivity and then a collected lumber of lowcost can be obtained.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, the annual ringsfound in each of the thinned-out woods or the like are left at an endface of the collected lumber or the like while being molded into variousshapes, thereby a specific design effect can be realized and they can beused over various wide ranges of applications and concurrently varioussuperior characteristics of the collected lumber can be applied to eachof the applications after the woods are collected. In addition, theaging can be shortened to improve productivity and thus it is possibleto provide the collected lumber of low cost.

(6) In addition, a collected lumber of the present invention foraccomplishing the aforesaid sixth object discloses that each of aplurality of conifers is compressed into a specific shape while anadhesive is being spread at the surface of each of the conifers softenedthrough a heating treatment applied as one means, and in particular, acollected body in which the wood formed into a predetermined shape isfixed is the most preferable one, wherein the collected body has annularrings of the woods left in complicatedly molded state at its ends, andthe ends having a hardness of 4.6 to 9.0 kgf/mm², as measured accordingto JIS Z 2117.

Additionally, as another means, the present invention teaches that aplurality of bamboos are compressed into a predetermined shape while anadhesive is being spread to the surfaces of the bamboos softened throughheating treatment and cut in a longitudinal direction, wherein acollected body compressed into a predetermined shape through a fixationtreatment in particular is the most preferable one, wherein thecollected body at its ends having a hardness of 5.2 to 8.5 kgf/mm², asmeasured according to JIS Z 2117.

In addition, another means discloses that a plurality of bamboos and aplurality of broad-leafed trees are compressed into a predeterminedshape while an adhesive is being spread to the surfaces of the bamboossoftened through a heating treatment and the broad-leafed trees, whereinthe collected body formed into a predetermined shape and processed withfixation treatment is the most preferable one.

The collected lumber of the present invention having the aforesaidconfiguration is compressed into a predetermined shape while an adhesiveis being spread at the surfaces of each of the plurality of woodssoftened through heat treatment, wherein the lumber is preferablycomposed of the collected body in which a fixation treatment is appliedto prevent the shape from being returned to its original shape even ifthe lumber is processed at high temperatures and its shape is fixed, andfurther the annual rings of each of the woods are left at the end faceof the collected body while being molded into various shapes.Accordingly, since the annual rings of each of the woods are left at theend face of the collected body while being molded into various shapes,it becomes possible to realize a specific design effect by changing adiameter of the woods to be used. With such an arrangement as above, theaforesaid collected lumber can be used over various wide ranges underutilization of its design effect and its high surface hardness.

In addition, when each of the woods is softened, each of the woodsenters a relative small gap, a contact area between each of the woods isincreased during its compressing step while the woods are being easilyplasticized and molded so as to obtain the integral collected lumber.Various characteristics can be freely changed by changing a percentageof compression set during its pressing step.

The percentage of compression set called here is defined by thefollowing equation.

    Percentage of compression set=(So-Sc)/So×100(%)

wherein, So designates a sum of areas at the end faces of each of thewoods spread in a mold of press before its compressing treatment, and Scdesignates an area at the end face of the integral woods aftercompressing treatment.

In such a collected lumber as above, since a plurality of woods arebonded and fixed to each other through an adhesive, so they show ahigher density and a higher strength as compared with those ofnon-processed woods, resulting in that a surface hardness is increasedand abrasion resistance and the like is also increased. In this case, asurface hardness as measured according to JIS Z 2117 at the end face ofthe collected lumber can be of 4.6 kgf/mm² to 9.0 kgf/mm² by adjusting apercentage of compression set to 30 to 60%. If this value is set to 4.6kgf/mm² or less, there is no substantial difference in view of anabrasion resistance as compared with that of non-processed broad-leafedtree when the collected lumber is applied in a flooring material, atable or the like, and in turn, if the value is set to have 9.0 kgf/mm²or more, mechanical machining characteristics are remarkablydeteriorated. In view of a design characteristic, a stability in sizeand a cost influenced by surface hardness, it is further preferable thatthe surface hardness as measured according to JIS Z 2117 is within arange of 5.0 kgf/mm² to 7.5 kgf/mm².

In addition, as the collected lumber of the present invention describedabove, bamboos can be used in the same manner as that of the conifer. Abasic organization or a grain of fibrovacular bundles of bamboo can beleft while being compressed in the same manner as that of the conifer.As the kind of bamboos, although Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel,Phyllostachys reticulata Koch, Phyllostachys nigra Munro, Phyllostachysnigra var. Henoris Staaf, Pleioblastus Simonii Nakai, Pseudosasajaponica Makino, or the like are applicable for their use, Phyllostachyspubescens Mazel, Phyllostachys reticulata Koch, Phyllostachys nigraMunro have a wide range of application in view of their strength andresiliency or the like. In addition, it is most preferable that asoftening of the bamboo is carried out in hot water. The reason for itconsists in the fact that deoiling can be effectively performed,resulting in that adhesiveness with the adhesive is improved and itshardness and strength are also increased. In case of the bamboo,although the bamboo cut into pieces is used and the collected bamboolumber can be produced by the producing method for the wood collectedlumber strictly as described in the preferred embodiment below, amaximum effect can be realized in view of machining and application byadjusting a surface hardness at an end face to have 5.2 kgf/mm² to 8.5kgf/mm².

In addition, in case of the collected lumber of the present invention, acompound collected lumber in which a wood and a bamboo are mixed andintegrally compressed via an adhesive. A filling density beforecompressing treatment may also be increased by assembling the bamboo cutinto pieces between the log-like woods. In view of design, a specificgrain or pattern in which the annual rings and the fibrovascular bundlesare combined to each other can be realized at the end face of the lumberand also its side surface can be formed with a specific pattern in whicha cross grain, straight grain and bamboo fibers are mixed to each other.

As described above, it becomes possible to use the conifer of shortdiameter log which is originally soft material over a wide range ofbuilding materials by changing the conifer into the collected lumber ofthe present invention. In addition, since the collected lumber issubjected to the fixation treatment for the collected body compressedinto a predetermined shape, an aging of the collected lumber can beshortened to improve productivity, and thus a collected lumber of lowcost can be obtained.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, the annual ringsfound in each of the thinned-out woods are left at the end face of thecollected lumber while being molded into various shapes, thereby aspecific design effect can be realized and concurrently a softcharacteristic of the conifer thinned-out woods is changed into a hardone and the present invention can be used over various wide ranges. Inaddition, an aging can be shortened to improve productivity and then acollected lumber of low cost can be provided.

(7) In addition, a collected lumber of the present invention foraccomplishing the aforesaid seventh object discloses a construction asone means that the collected lumber is compressed into a predeterminedshape while an adhesive is being spread to the surfaces of each ofvarious kinds of woods softened through a heating treatment, and acollected body having the collected lumber formed into a predeterminedshape through a fixation treatment is the most preferable one, whereinthe collected body has annular rings of the woods left in complicatedlymolded state at its ends, and the collected body has a depth of abrasionof 25 to 170 μm after 500 revolutions, as measured for side faces havinga longitudinal straight grain or cross grain of wood according to theAbrasion Test A of JAS.

As another means, the present invention discloses that a collected bodyis compressed into a predetermined shape while an adhesive is beingspread to the surfaces of a plurality of bamboos softened with a heatingtreatment and cut in a longitudinal direction, wherein in particular thecollected body having the collected bamboos formed into a predeterminedshape and processed with fixation treatment is the most preferable one,and the collected body has a depth of abrasion of 30 to 145 μm after 500revolutions, as measured for its side face having a longitudinal fiberpattern of bamboo according to the Abrasion Test A of JAS.

The collected lumber of the present invention having the aforesaidconfiguration is compressed into a predetermined shape while theadhesive is being spread at the surfaces of each of a plurality of woodssoftened through heating treatment, and preferably this is composed ofthe collected body having a fixation treatment applied to prevent thewoods from being returned back to their original shapes even afterfixing their shapes under high-temperature treatment, wherein theannular rings of each of the woods are left at the end face of thecollected body while being entered and molded into various shapes.Accordingly, since the annular rings of each of the woods are left atthe end face of the collected body while being left and molded intovarious shapes, it becomes possible to realize a specific design effectby changing a diameter of the woods to be used or the kind of tree orthe like. With such an arrangement as above, the collected lumber can beused over various wide ranges under utilization of its design effect andits abrasion resistance.

Although as the practical kinds of the woods, conifers such as Japanesered wood, Japanese cypress, Japanese red pine, Japanese black pine,Japanese larch, Japanese white pine, Yezo spruce, White fir, Umbrellatree, Sawara ceder, Momi fir, False arbor-vitae, Standish arbor-vitae,Yew podocarpus, Southern Japanese hemlock, Japanese torreya, JapaneseDouglas fir, and Japanese yew, and broad-leafed trees such as Zelkovas,White oak, Japanese chestnut, Ash, Camphor tree, Panlownia, Red oak,White oak, Quercus acutissima CARRUTHERS, Japanese ebony, Siebold'sbeech, Castanopsis cuspidata SCHOTTKY var. Sielboldii Nakai, Swamp ash,Bass wood, Japanese wingnut, Fraxinus lanuginosa Koidz, Painted maple,Mountain cherry, Japanese alder, Heliotrope tree, Buckeye, Poplar,Japanese hop hornbeam, Laurel, Japanese elm, Japanese walnut, Katsuratree, Silver magnolia, Japanese cherry birch, Birch, Witch hazel, Morusbombycis Koidz, Maakia amurensis var. buergeri, Sen, Phellodendronamurense RUPR var. sachalinense FR SCHM, Shiwari CHERRY, Birch, andKenbo pier tree are suitable, Japanese red wood, Japanese cypress, pinesor the like, Zelkova, Quercus acutissima, White oak and Siebold's beechare preferable as the material of the present invention in view ofdesign and abrasion resistance.

As foreign woods, the followings are preferable: Teak, Red lauan, Nyato,Champala, Manggasinoro, Pekurru, Dao, Rose wood, Black ebony, Durian,Kamerere, Mersawa, Ramin, Bagtikan, Kapur, Meranti, Palosapis, Radiatapine, Taiwan cypress, Agathis, Apitong, Pradoo wood, New Guinea walnut,Qweensland walnut, Monkey pot, Silky oak, Tamakra, Bradirian rose,MORADO, Mahogany, Kobaril, Primavella, Aku-sugi, Black walnut, Spruce,Claro walnut, Western red cedar, Port Orford cedar, Douglas fir, Zebrawood, Wenge, Mansonia, Iroko, Makore, Satinwood, Afara, Abura, Idigbo,Sapele, Omu, Ilomba, Wawabima, Bubinga, Danta, Ovangkol, Black bean,Yakal, Jelutong, Asam, Jongkong, Sepetir, Matoa, and Hevea brasiliensis.

In the present invention, pine, Japanese cypress, Japanese red wood,Zelkova, Quercus acutissima CHARRUTHERS, White oak and Siebold's beechare preferable as woods. The reason for the above consists in the factthat these trees may easily be heated and softened.

In addition, when each of the woods is softened, each of the woodsmutually enters their fine gaps more than expected and is easilyplasticized, so that a contact area between the woods is increasedduring compressing step so as to obtain an integral collected lumber.Various characteristics can be freely changed by varying a percentage ofcompressduring this compressing step.

In addition, strength, heat resistance and the like can be freelyadjusted by making compound materials by metallic materials such asaluminum and iron; ceramic materials such as alumina, silicon nitride,carbon fiber, fibrous silicon carbide and fibrous alumina-silica; andplastic materials such as nylon and Tetron.

Since the plurality of woods in the collected lumber are connected andfixed to each other through the adhesive, they show a higher density anda higher strength as compared with those of non-processed woods,resulting in that its surface hardness is increased and abrasionresistance or the like are improved. In this case, a depth of abrasionat the side surface of grain or straight grain after 500 revolutionswith the Abrasion A Test of JAS appearing in the longitudinal directionof the collected lumber is necessary to have a value of 25 to 170 μmwith a percentage of compression set of 20 to 70%.

In the case where the depth of abrasion exceeds 170 μm, a substantialdifference is not found in a degree of abrasion as compared with that ofnon-processed wood when the collected lumber is applied in a flooringmaterial or the like in view of the effect against the footwear, and inturn, when the depth is 2.5 μm or lower, its machining characteristicsare remarkably deteriorated. In view of a design characteristicinfluenced by abrasion resistance, stability in size and cost, a depthof abrasion under the Abrasion A test under JAS (flooring) is mostpreferably in a range of 65 to 125 μm.

In addition, even if the collected lumber is of a plate member withinthe aforesaid range of depth of abrasion, a warp is scarcely found init. Normal woods, in particular, a plate having cross grain generates anoutward directed warp against a core of the plate without fail, althoughthe material of the present invention does not generate any warp in thecase where the plate-like material is applied. The reason for the aboveis not so clear, but it is supposed that the collected lumber is formedby short diameter logs, resulting in that there is no directionalindication such as annular rings found in the cross grain and the rangeof the depth of abrasion in the present invention corresponds to astrength and a hardness which can resist against the residual stress ofthe warp found in each of the woods constituting the collected lumber.

In addition, a hardness at the end face of the present invention asmeasured according to JIS Z 2117 can be set to 4.6 kgf/mm² to 9.0kgf/mm² by adjusting a percentage of compression set to 30% to 60%. Ifthis hardness value is set to 4.6 kgf/mm² or lower, there is nosubstantial difference in abrasion resistance as compared with that ofnon-processed conifer when the collected lumber is applied to a flooringplate, a table or the like, and in turn if the value exceeds 9.0kgf/mm², its machining characteristics are remarkably deteriorated. Inview of the design characteristic influenced by hardness, stability insize and cost, the hardness value as measured in accordance with JIS Z2117 is preferably within a range of 5.0 kgf/mm² to 7.5 kgf/mm².

In the present invention, bamboos may also be used in the same manner asthat of the woods. Basic structure or grain of fibrovascular bundle canbe left in the same manner as that of the annular rings of the woodswhile being compressively molded. As the kinds of bamboos, Phyllostachyspubescens Mazel, Phyllostachys reticulate Koch, Phyllostachys nigraMunro, Phyllostachys nigra var Henonis Staaf, Pleioblastus SimoniiNakai, Pseudosasa japonica Makino, Phyllostachys vaginatus Nakai, IyoTake, Chimonobambusa marmorea Makino and the like are suitably applied,Phyllostachys pubescens Mazel, Phyllostachys reticulata Koch,Phyllostachys nigra Munro are preferable due to their wide range ofapplication in view of strength, resiliency and the like. In addition,softening of the bamboos is most preferably carried out in hot water. Areason for it consists in the fact that deoiling can be effectivelyarried out, with a result of adhesiveness of the adhesive is improved,its hardness and strength may also be increased. In case of the bamboos,the bamboos cut into pieces can be applied and the collected body ofbamboos can be made by the producing process of the wood collectedlumber described in detail in the first embodiment.

In case of the collected body of the bamboos in the present invention,it is necessary that a depth of abrasion at the Abrasion A Test inaccordance with JAS (flooring) at the side surface in the longitudinaldirection of the bamboo is within a range of 30 to 145 μm. The reasonsfor this state consist in the facts that if the value exceeds 145 μm,there is no substantial difference in a degree of abrasion as comparedwith that of non-processed bamboos when the collected body is applied tothe flooring material or the like, and in particular, there is no effectagainst footwear, and in turn in case of the value of 30 μm or lower,its machining characteristics are tremendously deteriorated. Its mostpreferable range is 70 to 120 μm.

In addition, the hardness at the end face of the collected body of theaforesaid bamboos can produce the most preferable effect in view of itsmachining characteristics and application by adjusting it in referenceto a percentage of compression set in such a manner that it shows 5.2kgf/mm² to 8.5 kgf/mm².

As described above, the short diameter soft woods by themselves can beused over a wide range of building materials and the like by changingthem into the collected lumbers of the present invention. Additionally,since the collected lumbers are treated in fixation for the collectedlumbers compressed into a predetermined shape, an aging of the collectedlumbers can be shortened to improve productivity, resulting in that itis possible to obtain the collected lumber of a low cost, a superiorabrasion resistance and having no warp even if they are machined into aplate-like member.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, the annual ringsfound in each of the thinned-out woods are left at the end face of thecollected lumber, thereby a specific design effect can be realized,concurrently softness of the thinned-out woods is changed into hard one,resulting in that their abrasion resistance can be improved and they canbe used over various wide ranges. In addition, the aging can beshortened to improve productivity and the collected lumber of low costcan be provided, and additionally even if the lumber is machined intothe plate-like member, there occurs no warp at all.

(8) In addition, a collected lumber producing apparatus according to thepresent invention for accomplishing the above eighth object comprises ona self-running vehicle one or more devices for heating a plurality ofwoods to soften the woods, compressing the softened woods with anadhesive therebetween to form a collected body, and subjecting thecollected body to a fixation treatment.

In this case, the aforesaid heating treatment is carried out with watervapor heating and the aforesaid fixation treatment is carried out byheating the collected body by heating water vapor or a heater. Inaddition, as the self-running vehicle, either a trailer type vehicle ora plurality of vehicles can be used. In addition, it is desirable thatthe self-running vehicle has a saw for cutting the woods to apredetermined length and a barker for barking of the woods.

The vehicle-carried type apparatus for manufacturing a collected lumberof the present invention having the aforesaid configuration is operatedsuch that at first thinned-out woods used as raw materials is cut by thesaw into a predetermined length. Since the thinned-out woods left at thesite are different in length from each other, if the precise alignmentin cutting of the lengths of the thinned-out woods in advance which areused as raw materials is not provided, the lengths of the collectedlumbers obtained through the cutting operation cannot be aligned to eachother. The thinned-out woods cut and aligned by the saw are transportedto the barker. The barker peels off the barks present at the outercircumferential surfaces of the thinned-out woods.

In this way, the thinned-out woods, lengths of which are aligned fromeach other and barks of which are peeled off, are transported to thecompressively molding apparatus through conveyors. At the compressivelymolding apparatus, heating treatment for softening the thinned-out woodsis performed for improving a forming characteristic of the thinned-outwoods in the pressing and compressing treatment to be carried out at itssubsequent stage. As one of the heating treatments, this can be carriedout by heating the thinned-out woods with water vapor heating and thethinned-out woods are left within the water vapor heating for aspecified period of time. Each of the softened thinned-out woods isspread with adhesive entirely over the full range of the thinned-outwoods in order to allow the plurality of thinned-out woods to adhere toeach other.

The plurality of thinned-out woods spread with the adhesive arecollected and further a pressing and compressing treatment is carriedout for changing the plurality of thinned-out woods into one collectedlumber. The plurality of thinned-out woods already pressed andcompressed are turned into a collected lumber having a predeterminedshape. In this way, the fixation treatment for fixing each of thethinned-out woods is carried out for the collected lumber in which theplurality of thinned-out woods are pressed and compressed. The fixationtreatment is carried out by heating the integral body left at thepressed and compressed state to a temperature higher than that at thepressing and compressing time with heating water vapor or a heater, andduring this treatment, a specified constant pressure is being applied.The adhesive present in the plurality of thinned-out woods constitutingthe collected body is solidified through heating and pressing, and thenthe thinned-out woods are permanently formed as the collected lumber.Then, the produced collected lumbers are transported out of the vehicleby conveyors or transferred to a collected lumber transporting vehicle.

Since the saw, barker and compressively molding apparatus are installedon the self-running vehicle, after the thinned-out woods are moved tothe producing center of wood, for example, the collected lumber can beproduced with the raw material of the thinned-out woods and directlyshipped as the collected lumber.

Accordingly, in accordance with the present invention, since thecompressively molding apparatus capable of producing the collectedlumber from the thinned-out woods is installed on the self-runningvehicle, the collected lumber having a high density, a high strength, asuperior abrasion resistance and a superior stability in size can beproduced through the pressing and fixation treatment withouttransporting the thinned-out woods, and at the same time the collectedlumber manufacturing apparatus utilizing the thinned-out woods can beeasily moved, and further its mounting cost can be eliminated. Inaddition, the thinned-out woods of low added value can be directlyshipped as the high value-added product, and this direct shippingenables utilization of thinned-out woods to be promoted and the low costcollected woods can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1 to 8 are views for illustrating the collected lumber and theprocess for producing the collected lumber in the first preferredembodiment: FIG. 1 is an end view of the collected lumber in which aplurality of thinned-out woods having a relatively uniform diameter toeach other; FIG. 2 is an end view for showing the collected lumber inwhich a plurality of thinned-out woods having an irregular diameter toeach other are pressed and collected; FIG. 3 is an illustrative view forschematically showing the state in which the thinned-out woods are heattreated with a water vapor heating device; FIG. 4 is an illustrativeview for schematically showing the state in which the thinned-out woodsare heat treated in a water tank filed with hot water; FIG. 5 is anillustrative view for schematically showing the state in which thethinned-out woods are heat treated by a high-frequency heating device;FIG. 6 is a sectional view for schematically showing the compressivelymolding apparatus; FIG. 7 is a sectional view for schematically showingthe state of the compressively molding apparatus at the time when thepressing step is completed; and FIG. 8 is a sectional view for showingthe state in which the fixation treatment is carried out through aheater arranged in the compressively molding apparatus.

FIGS. 9 to 16 are views for illustrating the second preferred embodimentof the present invention: FIG. 9 is an illustrative view forschematically showing the state before the heating treatment of thethinned-out woods is carried out by the compressively molding apparatus;FIG. 10 is an illustrative view for schematically showing the stateafter compressively molding each thinned-out wood by the compressivelymolding apparatus; FIG. 11 is a sectional view for schematically showingthe compressively molding apparatus; FIG. 12 is a sectional view forshowing the compressively molding apparatus for schematicallyillustrating the state of performing the fixation treatment while eachthinned-out wood being further compressed; FIG. 13 is a sectional viewfor showing the state in which the fixation processing is carried outthrough the heater arranged in the compressively molding apparatus; FIG.14 is an illustrative view for schematically showing the state forperforming a fixation treatment through the heating water vapor afterperforming a compressively molding each thinned-out wood by thecompressively molding apparatus; FIG. 15 is an illustrative view forschematically showing the state for performing a fixation treatmentthrough the heater after compressively molding each thinned-out wood bythe compressively molding apparatus; and FIG. 16 is an illustrative viewfor schematically showing the state for forming the collected lumber bylaminating each thinned-out wood spread with adhesive and pressing itthrough a clamping device.

FIGS. 17 to 28 are views for illustrating the third preferred embodimentof the present invention: FIG. 17 is an end view of the collected lumberin which a plurality of thinned-out woods having a relatively uniformdiameter to each other are pressed and collected; FIG. 18 is an end viewfor showing the collected lumber in which a plurality of thinned-outwoods having irregular diameters are pressed and collected from eachother; FIG. 19 is an illustrative view for indicating a sectional viewand a side elevational view of reinforcing members P; FIG. 20 is a viewof concept for showing the state in which each of the thinned-out woodsin the collected lumber is connected and fixed through each of thereinforcing members; FIG. 21 is a sectional view for schematicallyshowing the compressively molding apparatus; FIG. 22 is a sectional viewfor schematically showing the state of the compressively moldingapparatus at the time of completion of the pressing step; FIG. 23 is anillustrative view for showing the first modification of the reinforcingmember; FIG. 24 is an illustrative view for showing the secondmodification of the reinforcing member; FIG. 25 is an illustrative viewfor showing the third modification of the reinforcing member; FIG. 26 isan illustrative view for showing the fourth modification of thereinforcing member; FIG. 27 is an illustrative view for showing thefifth and sixth preferred embodiments of the reinforcing member,respectively; and FIG. 28 is a sectional view for showing the state inwhich the fixing treatment is carried out through the heater arranged inthe compressively molding apparatus.

FIGS. 29 to 36 illustrate the fourth preferred embodiment of the presentinvention: FIG. 29 is an illustrative view for schematicallyillustrating the side surface of the wood building material pressed,formed and fixed; FIG. 30 is an illustrative view for schematicallyshowing the side surface of the collected wood building material whichcan be attained by pressing, forming and fixing operations; FIG. 31 is asectional view for schematically showing the part to be cut during astandardization process; FIG. 32 is an illustrative view forschematically showing the side surface of the thinned-out woods cut bythe standardization process; FIG. 33 is a sectional view forschematically illustrating the state in which the softening process isapplied by using the compressively molding apparatus; FIG. 34 is asectional view for schematically showing the state in which thecompressively molding treatment and the fixation treatment are appliedthrough the compressively molding apparatus; FIG. 35 is a sectional viewfor showing the state in which the fixation is carried out through aheater arranged at the compressively molding apparatus; and FIG. 36 is asectional view for schematically showing the state in which thecollected wood building materials are formed by collecting each woodbuilding material and fastening it through the clamping device.

FIG. 37 is a perspective view for schematically showing the collectedlumber; FIG. 38 is a sectional view for schematically showing thecompressively molding apparatus; FIG. 39 is a sectional view forschematically showing the state of the compressively molding apparatusat the time of completion of the pressing step; and FIG. 40 is asectional view for showing the state in which the fixation treatment iscarried out through the heater arranged at the compressively moldingapparatus.

FIGS. 41 to 43 are views for illustrating the sixth and seventhpreferred embodiments of the present invention: FIG. 41 is a perspectiveview for schematically showing the collected lumber in the case of usingthe bamboos; FIG. 42 is a perspective view for schematically showing thecomplex collected lumber in the case of using the wood and the bamboo;and FIG. 43 is a schematic illustration for showing the test machine forthe abrasion Test A in accordance with JAS.

FIG. 44 is a side sectional view for schematically illustrating avehicle-carried type apparatus for manufacturing a collected lumber ofthe eighth preferred embodiment according to the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiments in which the present invention is specified will bedescribed hereinafter with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment)

The first embodiment according to the present invention will bedescribed in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8. First, theconstruction of a collected lumber according to the first embodimentwill be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. In FIG. 1, acollected lumber 1 comprises a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 (12 inthe collected lumber 1 shown in FIG. 1) and an adhesive 3 interposedbetween the thinned-out woods 2, which are then mutually compressed andcollected and are then subjected to a fixation treatment through heatingwater vapor or a heater. The thinned-out woods 2 used herein are thoseremoved during the process of growing of Sugi (Cryptmeria japonica D.Don), a Japanese cypress, and the like. As the thinned-out wood 2, a logis used, of which diameter is relatively arranged in order having abottom end 2A of approximately 15 cm and a tip end 2B of approximately10 cm.

It is to be noted that the aforementioned fixation treatment is notalways required, but the collected lumber 1 having the thinned-out woods2 compressed and collected without subjecting the fixation treatment canbe applied to various products.

As shown in FIG. 1, the bottom ends 2A and the tip ends 2B of thethinned-out woods 2 in the longitudinal row and lateral row in thecollected lumber 1 are alternately disposed. For example, taking thelateral row of the thinned-out wood 2 located at the uppermost positionin the collected lumber 1 as an example, when the thinned-out wood 2 isdisposed with the bottom end 2A located on the end side (the thinned-outwood 2 at the rightmost position in the lateral row), the thinned-outwood 2 adjacent to the first mentioned thinned-out wood 2 is disposed sothat the tip end 2B is located on the end side of the collectedlumber 1. In the next thinned-out wood 2, the bottom end 2A thereof isdisposed on the end side of the collected lumber 1, and in the furtherthinned-out wood 2, the tip end 2B is disposed on the end side of thecollected lumber 1. The mutual relationship between the thinned-outwoods 2 as described is maintained in the longitudinal row and lateralrow of the collected lumber 1. When the thinned-out woods 2 are disposedas described above, it is hard to form a clearance between thethinned-out woods 2 when carrying out the compressive molding andfixation treatment which will be described later, and in addition, theusing quantity of the adhesive 3 can be saved.

Further, the adhesive 3 is used to mutually bond the thinned-out woods2, and various kinds of adhesives can be used in the present embodiment.Preferable adhesives include, for example, heat curing adhesives suchas, a phenolic resin adhesive mainly composed of a phenolic resin, aresorcinol resin adhesive mainly composed of a resorcinol resin.Further, use can be made of other heat curing adhesives such as amelamine-formaldehyde resin adhesive mainly composed of amelamine-formaldehyde resin, a urea resin adhesive mainly composed of aurea resin, and an epoxy resin adhesive mainly composed of an epoxyresin. In addition to these heat curing adhesives, a water basedpolymer-isocyanate adhesive mainly composed of isocyanate and a waterbased polymer, and a polyvinyl acetate resin adhesive can be also used.In selecting adhesives to be used, it is preferable to select them inconsideration of kinds of solvents, uses of collected lumber, and thelike.

Next, a collected lumber 4 shown in FIG. 2 will be described. Thiscollected lumber 4 basically has the construction similar to thecollected lumber 1 shown in FIG. 1, except that thinned-out wood 5 isirregular in diameter. The collected lumber comprises a plurality ofthinned-out woods 5 (20 in the collected lumber 4 shown in FIG. 2) andan adhesive 3 interposed between the thinned-out woods 5, which are thenmutually compressed and collected and are then subjected to a fixationtreatment through heating water vapor or a heater.

It is to be noted that the aforementioned fixation treatment is notalways required, but the collected lumber 4 having the thinned-out woods5 compressed and collected without subjecting the fixation treatment canbe applied to various products, similarly to the collected lumber 4described above.

As the thinned-out wood 5, there is used a log having an averagediameter in the range of from approximately 6 cm to 20 cm. In the casewhere these thinned-out woods 5 are arranged so that they are mutuallycollected, the thinned-out wood 5 is selected depending on the averagediameter falls within the aforementioned predetermined range inconsideration of the diameter of the bottom end and the diameter of thetip end. Therefore, it is not particularly necessary that the bottomends and the tip ends of the thinned-out woods 5 are alternatelydisposed. However, preferably, the thinned-out woods 5 are suitablydisposed in consideration of the entire configuration of the collectedlumber 4. Here, the thinned-out wood which is irregular in diameter isgenerally reduced to half in the using value, which is difficult to use.However, the collected lumber 4 as mentioned above has a value enough touse.

Since the adhesive 3 is identical with that used in the collected lumber1 shown in FIG. 1, an explanation thereof is omitted.

Next, the process for producing the collected lumbers 1 and 4constructed as above will be explained. The collected lumbers 1 and 4are produced via the steps of softening the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 bysubjecting a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 to a heatingtreatment, coating an adhesive on the surface of the softenedthinned-out woods 2 and 5, pressing and compressing the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 having their surfaces coated with the adhesive to form acollected lumber having a predetermined shape, and applying a fixationtreatment to the collected lumber through heating water vapor or aheater as necessary.

First, the heating treatment carried out in the softening step will befirst explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5. FIG. 3 schematicallyshows the state where the heating treatment of the thinned-out woods 2and 5 is carried out by a water vapor heating device; FIG. 4schematically shows the state where the heating treatment of thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 is carried out in a water tank filled with hotwater; and FIG. 5 schematically shows the state where the heatingtreatment of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 is carried out by ahigh-frequency heating device.

First, the method for the heating treatment using the water vaporheating device shown in FIG. 3 will be explained. The water vaporheating device 10 has a heating vessel 11, which is provided with asteam nozzle 12 (on the right side in FIG. 3) for jetting heating watervapor into the interior, and an exhaust port 13 (on the upper side inFIG. 3) for discharging the interior heating water vapor outwardly ofthe water vapor heating device 10. In the water vapor heating device 10as described, the interior of the apparatus 10 is communicated with theatmosphere through the exhaust port 13. Within the water vapor heatingdevice 10, a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are laminatedthrough partition plates 14. Each partition plate 14 has a function tolocate the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 so that they are not moved withinthe apparatus 10.

The interior of the apparatus 10 is increased in temperature to 70°-160°C. by the heating water vapor jetted into the apparatus 10 from thesteam nozzle 12. Preferably, the heating water vapor is intermittentlyjetted under a water vapor pressure of approximately 1 kgf/cm² tomaintain the temperature within the apparatus 10 at approximately 80° C.The heating time is set to approximately 6 hours.

The heating treatment of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are carried outby the water vapor heating device 10 in such a manner that the barkedthinned-out woods 2 and 5 are laminated within the apparatus through thepartition plates 14, after which the heating water vapor isintermittently jetted through the steam nozzle 12. The thinned-out woods2 and 5 are evenly softened during the jetting of the heating watervapor.

Next, the process for heat-treating the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 in hotwater will be described with reference to FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, a watertank 20 is filled with hot water 21, into which a net 22 such as a wirenet receiving a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 therein is soakedinto the hot water 21. A lid 23 is placed on the water tank 20. This lid23 is provided to close the upper portion of the water tank 20 when thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 are subjected to a heating treatment so that atemperature of the hot water 21 within the water tank 20 does not lower.

The hot water 21 filled in the water tank 20 is preferably boiling waterat a temperature of 60° C. or more. More preferably, the hot water isset to a temperature in the range of 90°±5° C. in consideration of thetreatment for a long period of time. A heater may be installed withinthe water tank 20 to control temperatures, if necessary. It is necessaryto heat the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 for about 6 hours.

The heating treatment of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 is carried outusing the water tank 20 as described above in the following procedure.The hot water 21 heated to 90°±5° C. is filled into the water tank 20,and thereafter, the net 22 receiving the plurality of thinned-out woods2 and 5 therein in advance is introduced into the water tank 20 througha crane or the like and soaked into the hot water 21. The upper portionof the water tank 20 is closed by the lid 23, after which the heatingtreatment is carried out for about 6 hours. Thereby, the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 are evenly softened.

Further, the process for carrying out a heating treatment of thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 by a high-frequency heating device will be explained withreference to FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, the high-frequency heating device 30 haselectrodes 32 disposed in plural stages within an apparatus body 31, andthe plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are placed on each of theelectrodes 32. A microwave induction heater 33 is provided at the upperpart of the apparatus body 31, and a controller 34 for controlling themicrowave induction heater 33 is installed on the side (on the rightside in FIG. 5) of the apparatus body 31.

High frequency oscillated from the microwave induction heater 33 is setto 2450±50 MHz, and an output thereof is set to 600 W. The time forhigh-frequency heating carried out by the microwave induction heater 33is set to about one hour.

The heating treatment of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 is carried out bythe high-frequency heating device 30 in the procedure as follows. Thebarked thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are placed on each of the electrodes 32disposed within the apparatus body 31, after which the microwaveinduction heater 33 is driven under the aforementioned conditionsthrough the controller 34. Consequently, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5are heated with the high frequency generated by the microwave inductionheater 33, to be thus softened uniformly.

The heating treatment for softening the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 can bealso carried out by jetting the heating water vapor to the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 through a water vapor jetting apparatus installed on acompressively molding apparatus 40, described later, and used at thetime of fixation treatment.

There will be explained hereinafter the adhesive spreading step forspreading an adhesive to the surfaces of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5subjected to the heating treatment and softened by the above-describedheating treatment, the pressing and compressing step for pressing andcompressing the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 coated with the adhesive toform a collected lumber having a predetermined shape, and the fixationtreatment step for subjecting the collected lumber to a fixationtreatment through heating water vapor or a heater.

The aforementioned adhesive spreading step, pressing and compressingstep and fixation treatment step are carried out through a compressivelymolding apparatus which will be described hereinafter. The compressivelymolding apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 isa sectional view schematically showing the compressively moldingapparatus. In FIG. 6, the compressively molding apparatus 40 is providedwith a pressure vessel 41 which is formed to be a lengthwise tubularconfiguration having a square section (which is formed to be long in adirection vertical to paper surface), and rod holes 42, 43 and 44 arebored in an upper wall and both left and right walls of the pressurevessel 41.

A hydraulic cylinder 45 is connected to the rod hole 42 at one endoutside of the pressure vessel 41, and a press rod 47 having a mold ofpress 46 mounted thereon is slidably inserted on the other end into thepressure vessel 41. With this, in the pressing and compression of thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 described later, the press rod 47 is moveddownward through the hydraulic cylinder 45, and as the press rod 47moves, the mold of press 46 presses the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 fromthe top. The mold of press 46 is formed with a number of water vaporholes 46A, and water vapor passes through each of the water vapor holes46A during the fixation treatment, described later, to jet the watervapor against the thinned-out woods 2 and 5.

Similarly to the press rod 47, a hydraulic cylinder 48 is connected atone end, outside of the pressure vessel 41, to the rod hole 43 bored inthe left wall of the pressure vessel 41, and a press rod 50 having amold of press 49 mounted thereon is slidably inserted at the other endinto the pressure vessel 41. The mold of press 49 is formed with anumber of water vapor holes 49A, similarly to the mold of press 46, andwater vapor passes through each of the water vapor holes 49A during thefixation treatment, described later, to jet the water vapor against thethinned-out woods 2 and 5.

Similarly to the press rods 47 and 50, a hydraulic cylinder 51 isconnected at one end, outside of the pressure vessel 41, to the rod hole44 bored in the right wall of the pressure vessel 41, and a press rod 53having a mold of press 52 mounted thereon is slidably inserted at theother end into the pressure vessel 41. The mold of press 52 is formedwith a number of water vapor holes 52A, similarly to the molds of press46 and 49, and water vapor passes through each of the water vapor holes52A during the fixation treatment, described later, to jet the watervapor against the thinned-out woods 2 and 5.

Within the pressure vessel 41, a mold of press 54 is fixedly mounted ata lower position, and a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 to bepressed and compressed are placed on the mold of press 54. The mold ofpress 54 is formed with a number of water vapor holes 54A, similarly tothe molds of press 46, 49 and 52, and water vapor passes through each ofthe water vapor holes 54A during the fixation treatment to jet the watervapor against the thinned-out woods 2 and 5.

The mold of press 49 is internally provided with a mold of slide-press55 which is slidable vertically along the inner wall of the mold ofpress 49 and laterally together with the mold of press 49 through aslide mechanism (not shown), and the mold of press 52 is likewiseinternally provided with a mold of slide-press 56 which is slidablevertically along the inner wall of the mold of press 52 and laterallytogether with the mold of press 52 through a slide mechanism. The moldsof slide-press 55 and 56 are formed with a number of water vapor holes55A and 56A, similarly to the mold of press 46 or the like. The molds ofslide-press 55 and 56 have a function to prevent the thinned-out woods 2and 5 from falling down, when the plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5are placed on the mold of press 54, to keep the laminated state of thethinned-out woods 2 and 5.

At upper positions of the left and right walls of the pressure vessel41, a number of nozzles 57 (only two nozzles 57 are shown in FIG. 3) areprovided lengthwise of the pressure vessel 41. The adhesive 3 is jettedthrough each nozzle 57 against the surfaces of the thinned-out woods 2and 5 in the adhesive spreading step.

The pressure applied from the hydraulic cylinders 45, 48 and 51,constructed as described above, to the press rods 47, 50 and 53 varieswith the percentage of compression set. For example, in case of thepercentage of compression set of 50%, the pressure is set to 15 kgf/cm²,and in case of the percentage of compression set of 30%, the pressure isset to 10 kgf/cm².

The compressively molding apparatus 40 constructed as described above isprovided with a water vapor jetting apparatus for jetting the heatingwater vapor from all walls of the pressure vessel 41 against thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 held in the laminated state by the molds ofpress 49, 52 and 54 and the molds of slide-press 55 and 56. The watervapor pressure of the water vapor jetted out of the water vapor jettingapparatus is set to 5 to 16 kgf/cm² or more. A heating temperature isset in the range of from 130° C. to 200° C., preferably, 150° C. to 180°C.

Next, the process for producing collected lumbers 1 and 4 by carryingout the adhesive spreading step, pressing and compressing step andfixation treatment step of the plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5softened by the above-described heating treatment using thecompressively molding apparatus 40 constructed as described above willbe explained. It is assumed that prior to carrying out theaforementioned steps, the molds of press 46, 49, 52 and 54 are held inthe state shown in FIG. 6.

First, the plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 softened through theabove-described steps are laminated and placed within the pressurevessel 41 to keep the laminated state of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5by cooperation with the molds of slide-press 55 and 56 (see FIG. 6). Thethinned-out woods 2 having a substantially regular diameter arelaminated so that the bottom end and tip end of a log are alternatelyarranged as previously mentioned, and the thinned-out woods 5 having anirregular diameter are laminated in consideration of the shape of acollected lumber as previously mentioned.

Thereafter, the adhesive is jetted against the surfaces of thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 from each of the nozzles 57. The jettedadhesive passes through the water vapor holes 46A, 49A, 52A and 54A ofthe molds of press 46, 49, 52 and 54, and the water vapor holes 55A and56A of the molds of slide-press 55 and 56, and are jetted against thethinned-out woods 2 and 5. After the adhesive in a fixed amount has beenjetted, the atmosphere stays still for about 5 minutes in order that theadhesive is evenly spread over the surfaces of the thinned-out woods 2and 5. Then, the adhesive spreading step is terminated.

After the adhesive has been jetted against the thinned-out woods 2 and5, the pressing and compression step is carried out in accordance withthe percentage of compression set. In this pressing and compressionstep, the press rod 47 is first pressed and moved through the upperhydraulic cylinder 45 whereby the mold of press 46 presses andcompresses the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 from the top under apredetermined pressure. Since at this time the thinned-out woods 2 and 5are in the softened state, they are compressed through the mold of press46 by cooperation of the molds of press 49, 52 and 54 with the molds ofslide-press 55 and 56. The molds of slide-press 55 and 56 are moveddownward in synchronism with the pressing state of the mold of press 46and finally placed in contact with the inner surface of the molds ofpress 49 and 52. The mold of press 46 completes its vertical compressionand stops when moved by a predetermined amount in accordance with thepercentage of compression set.

Next, the pressing and compression of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 inthe lateral direction is carried out through the hydraulic cylinders 48and 51, the press rods 50 and 53, the molds of press 49 and 52, and themolds of slide-press 55 and 56. By the pressing and compression, thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 receive the pressure in the lateral directionin FIG. 6 and are compressively molded. The pressing and compressionstep terminates when the molds of press 49 and 52 have been moved by apredetermined amount in accordance with the percentage of compressionset. This termination state is shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a sectionalview schematically showing the state of the compressively moldingapparatus when the pressing and compression step is terminated.

The time of the pressing and compression step depends on the kind ofadhesives since the adhesion time varies according to the kind ofadhesives to be used. The thinned-out woods 2 and 5 adhere to each otherby carrying out the pressing and compression step for about 30 minutes.Thereby, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are compressed and collected asshown in FIGS. 1 and 2, to form a collected body. At this time, theadhesive remains in the collected body as the solidified adhesive 3 (seeFIGS. 1 and 2).

Next, the collected body having the thus obtained thinned-out woods 2and 5 adhering to each other through the adhesive 3 is subjected to thefixation treatment. The fixation treatment will be described withreference to FIG. 7. The fixation treatment is carried out by jettingthe heating water vapor against the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 from thewater vapor jetting apparatus while holding the collected body in thestate as shown in FIG. 7. The heating water vapor jetted out of thewater vapor jetting apparatus passes through the water vapor holes 46A,49A, 52A and 54A of the molds of press 46, 49, 52 and 54, and the watervapor holes 55A and 56A of the molds of slide-press 55 and 56, and arejetted against the thinned-out woods 2 and 5. Thereby, the fixationtreatment of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 in the collected body iscarried out so that the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are fixed so as topermanently hold their shapes.

As the conditions for carrying out the fixation treatment, a temperatureof the heating water vapor jetted into the pressure vessel 41 from thewater vapor jetting apparatus is preferably 180° C., a water vaporpressure is set to 10 kgf/cm² and a time for the fixation treatment isset to about one hour.

The above fixation treatment can be also carried out in such a mannerthat the interior of the compressively molding apparatus is heated byheaters H disposed in the vicinity of both the right and left side wallsof the compressively molding apparatus 40, as shown in FIG. 8. That is,similarly to FIG. 7, the heaters H are energized, while the statecollected body in the state shown in FIG. 8, to heat the interior of thecompressively molding apparatus 40 to a predetermined temperature, wherethis is held for a predetermined time to thereby fix and treat thecollected body.

In carrying out the fixation treatment, the heaters H are controlled inheating so that the internal temperature of the compressively moldingapparatus 40 is kept at 180° C. The time for the fixation treatment isset to 20 hours.

After the completion of the aforementioned fixation treatment, thecollected lumbers 1 and 4 explained in reference with FIGS. 1 and 2 areobtained. In the case where the thus produced collected lumbers 1 and4,are used as a pillar, a beam or heartwood for non-structural members,they can exhibit a design characterized in that the natural grains arecollected and molded. However, decorative laminated sheets or the likemay be attached to four surfaces of the collected lumbers 1 and 4 foruse.

While in the production of the collected lumbers 1 and 4, a series ofsteps including the adhesive spreading step, and the pressing andcompression step, and the fixation treatment step, if necessary, havebeen carried out after the softening treatment of the thinned-out woods2 and 5 through the heating water vapor or the like to prepare thecollected lumbers 1 and 4, it is to be noted that the collected lumbers1 and 4 similar to those as described above can be also produced byfirst spreading the adhesive to the thinned-out woods 2 and 5,subjecting the woods to the softening treatment by the heating watervapor and thereafter carrying out the pressing and compression step, andthe step of fixation treatment, if necessary. According to such aproducing process, after confirmation that the adhesive has beencompletely spread to the thinned-out woods 2 and 5, the plasticizingprocess (softening process) can be carried out, and the management ofthe respective processing steps becomes easy.

As described above in detail, the collected lumbers 1 and 4 are obtainedby carrying out a series of treatments including the softening step forsubjecting the plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 to the heatingtreatment by the water vapor heating device 10, the hot water 21 in thewater tank 20 or the high-frequency heating device 30, the adhesivespreading step by the compressively molding apparatus 40, the pressingand compression step, and the fixation treatment step, if necessary.Accordingly, if the number of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 is suitablyselected, various kinds of the collected lumbers 1 and 4 can beobtained. Thereby, the collected lumbers 1 and 4 according to thepresent embodiment can be used over a wide range as building materials.

Further, since the collected lumbers 1 and 4 according to the firstembodiment are subjected to the fixation treatment after the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 have adhered to each other through the adhesive, the shapethereof after the pressing and compression molding of the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 while adhering them to each other through the adhesive canbe held permanently. Thereby, the collected lumber is excellent indimensional stability. A curing time which has been heretofore about oneweek can be shortened to about one hour, whereby the productivity of thecollected lumbers 1 and 4 can be remarkably improved.

Further, in the collected lumbers 1 and 4 according to the firstembodiment, a series of the steps including the softening step, theadhesive spreading step by the compressively molding apparatus 40, thepressing and compression step and the fixation step can be carried outimmediately after the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 have been barked,whereby it is not necessary to carry out machining such as chamfering inadvance in the stage of thinned-out woods as conventional, but thecollected lumbers 1 and 4 can be produced in the form of a log at a lesscost.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment,but it is of course noted that various improvements and modificationscan be made without departing the subject matter of the presentinvention. For example, while the collected lumbers 1 and 4 according tothe first embodiment have been explained taking an example of thecollected lumber having a rectangular parallelepiped shape, it isapparent that if a shape of the mold of press 46 and the like used forthe compressively molding apparatus 40 is variously changed, collectedlumbers having various shapes as desired can be obtained.

(Second Embodiment)

The process for producing a collected lumber according to the secondembodiment will be described hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5,and FIGS. 9 to 16. The second embodiment includes two producingprocesses: a first producing process and a second producing process.First, the first producing process will be described with reference toFIGS. 3 to 5 and FIGS. 9 to 13. The first producing process comprises asoftening treatment step of softening-treating a plurality ofthinned-out woods, a pressing and compression step for pressing andcompressing the softened thinned-out woods to mold them into apredetermined shape, an adhesive spreading step for spreading anadhesive to surfaces of the thinned-out woods formed into apredetermined shape, and a fixation treatment step for laminating thethinned-out woods spread with the adhesive to carry out the fixationtreatment by a heating device.

The softening treatment step for the thinned-out wood 2 is carried outby the water vapor heating device 10 (see FIG. 3), the hot water 21filled in the water tank 20 (see FIG. 4) and the high-frequency heatingdevice 30 (see FIG. 5), similarly to the first embodiment previouslydescribed. Since these softening treatments are carried out similarly tothe above-described first embodiment, the detail of which is referred tothe explanation of the first embodiment and the explanation thereof isomitted.

Next, the pressing and compression step for pressing and compressing thesoftened thinned-out woods 2 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 9and 10. First, the construction of a pressing apparatus used for thepressing and compression step will be explained. The pressing apparatus60 is provided with an apparatus body 61 formed to be a lengthwisetubular configuration having a rectangular section (formed to belengthwise vertical to paper surface), the apparatus body 61 providedwith a rod hole 62 bored in its upper wall. A hydraulic cylinder 63 isconnected at one end to the rod hole 61 outside of the apparatus body61, and a press rod 65 having a mold of press 64 mounted thereon isslidably inserted into the other end of the apparatus body 61. Anothermold of press 66 is fixedly mounted on the mold of press 64 downwardlyinside of the apparatus body 61. These molds of press 64 and 66 areprovided with molding grooves 64A and 66A, which constitute, in a pairthereof, a predetermined molding shape (a square, in the presentpressing apparatus 60) to mold the thinned-out wood 2 disposed betweenthe molding groove 64A and 66A into a predetermined shape.

In the compressive molding of the thinned-out wood 2 softened via thesoftening treatment as described above by the pressing apparatus 60constructed as described above, the thinned-out wood 2 is firstlydisposed between the molding grooves 64A and 66A of the molds of press64 and 66, and thereafter, the press rod 65 is pressed and moveddownward through the hydraulic cylinder 63. Thereby, the mold of press64 presses and compresses the thinned-out wood 2 from the top under apredetermined pressure. At this time, since the thinned-out wood 2 is inthe softened state, it is compressively molded into a predeterminedshape (square) by the cooperation of the molding groove 64A in the uppermold of press 64 with the molding groove 66A in the lower mold of press66 (see FIG. 10). With this, the pressing and compression step iscompleted.

Now, the adhesive spreading step for spreading an adhesive to thesurface of the thinned-out wood 2 subjected to the compressive moldingas described above will be explained. After being removed from thepressing apparatus 60, the thinned-out wood 2 is transported toward thecompressively molding apparatus 40 (which is not provided with anadhesive jetting nozzle 57) having the same construction as that of theapparatus used in the first embodiment through a belt conveyor, notshown. A spreader for spreading the adhesive is disposed halfway of thepassage of the belt conveyor, and the adhesive spreading step is carriedout by the spreader. Various kinds of spreaders can be used,construction of which is well known, and the explanation thereof istherefore omitted.

The adhesive is used to mutually bond the thinned-out woods 2, andvarious kinds of adhesives can be used in the present embodiment,similarly to the previously described first embodiment. Preferableadhesives include, for example, heat curing adhesives such as a phenolicresin adhesive mainly composed of a phenolic resin, a resorcinol resinadhesive mainly composed of a resorcinol resin. Further, use can be madeof other heat curing adhesives such as a melamine-formaldehyde resinmainly composed of a melamine-formaldehyde resin, a urea resin adhesivemainly composed of a urea resin, and an epoxy resin adhesive mainlycomposed of an epoxy resin. In addition to these heat curing adhesives,a water based polymer-isocyanate adhesive mainly composed of anisocyanate and a water based polymer, and a polyvinyl acetate resinadhesive can be also used. In selecting adhesives to be used, it ispreferable to select them in consideration of kinds of solvents, uses ofcollected lumber, and the like.

Next, the fixation treatment step for laminating the thinned-out woods 2coated with the adhesive, as described above, to heat them by theheating water vapor to thereby effect the fixation treatment will bedescribed hereinafter. The fixation treatment is carried out through thecompressively molding apparatus 40 (see FIG. 11) having the sameconstruction used in the previously described first embodiment. Theconstruction of the compressively molding apparatus 40 is referred tothe explanation in connection with the first embodiment, and theexplanation thereof is omitted.

The process for carrying out the fixation treatment of the thinned-outwood 2 using the compressively molding apparatus 40 will be explained.First, the plurality of thinned-out woods 2 are laminated and placedwithin the pressure vessel 41 to hold the thinned-out woods 2 in thelaminated state by cooperation of the molds of slide-press 55 and 56.Thereafter, the mold of press 46 is slightly moved downward to hold thestate shown in FIG. 11. In this state, the thinned-out woods 2 are heldin the state slightly pressed by the molds of press 46, 49 and 52, andthe molds of slide-press 55 and 56. Thereby, the thinned-out woods 2 arein the state adhering to each other through the adhesive.

In carrying out the fixation treatment of the thinned-out woods 2, theheating water vapor is jetted against the thinned-out woods 2 from thewater vapor jetting apparatus while holding the thinned-out woods 2 inthe state shown in FIG. 1. The heating water vapor thus jetted out ofthe water vapor jetting apparatus passes through the water vapor holes46A, 49A, 52A and 54A of the molds of press 46, 49, 52 and 54, and thewater vapor holes 55A and 56A of the molds of slide-press 55 and 56 andis jetted against the thinned-out woods 2. Thereby, the fixationtreatment of the thinned-out woods 2 in the collected body is carriedout so that the thinned-out woods 2 are fixed so as to permanently holdtheir shapes.

As the conditions for carrying out the fixation treatment, an optimumtemperature of the heating water vapor jetted into the pressure vessel41 from the water vapor jetting apparatus is approximately 180° C., thewater vapor pressure is set to 10 kgf/cm², and the time for the fixationtreatment is set to approximately one hour.

In the case where the thinned-out woods 2 are required to be furthersubjected to the compressive molding, the thinned-out woods 2 arefurther subjected to the compressive molding from the state shown inFIG. 2 through the molds of press 46, 49 and 52 and the molds ofslide-press 55 and 56, after which the fixation treatment by the heatingwater vapor is carried out. This state is shown in FIG. 12.

This will be explained with reference to FIG. 12. First, the pressingand compression step is carried out in accordance with the percentage ofcompression set of the thinned-out woods 2. In the pressing andcompression step, the press rod 47 is pressed and moved through theupper hydraulic cylinder 45 whereby the mold of press 46 presses andcompresses the thinned-out woods 2 from the top under a predeterminedpressure. Since at this time the thinned-out woods 2 are in the softenedstate, they are compressed through the mold of press 46 by cooperationof the molds of press 49, 52 and 54 with the molds of slide-press 55 and56. The molds of slide-press 55 and 56 are moved downward in synchronismwith the pressing state of the mold of press 46, and finally are placedin contact with the inner surfaces of the molds of press 49 and 52. Themold of press 46 completes its vertical compression when moved by apredetermined amount according to the percentage of compression set andstops.

Next, the pressing and compression of the thinned-out woods 2 in thelateral direction is carried out through the hydraulic cylinder 48 and51, the press rods 50 and 53, the molds of press 49 and 52, and themolds of slide-press 55 and 56. By the above pressing and compression,the thinned-out woods 2 receive the pressure in the lateral direction inFIG. 12 and are subjected to the compressive molding. When the molds ofpress 49 and 52 are moved by a predetermined amount in accordance withthe percentage of compression set, the pressing and compression stepcompletes.

The time for the pressing and compression step depends on the kind ofadhesives since the adhesion time varies with the kind of adhesives tobe used. However, the pressing and compression step is carried out forabout 30 minutes, whereby the thinned-out woods 2 adhere to each otherthrough the adhesive. Thereby, the thinned-out woods 2 are compressedand collected as shown in FIG. 2. Thereafter, the fixation treatment iscarried out through the heating water vapor in the same process as thatdescribed above.

The fixation treatment as described above can be also carried out byheating the interior of the compressively molding apparatus 40 by theheaters H disposed in the vicinity of both the right and left side wallsof the compressively molding apparatus 40, similar to the compressivelymolding apparatus 40 used in the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8(see FIG. 13). That is, similarly to the case shown in FIG. 11, theheaters H are energized, while holding the collected lumber 2 in thestate shown in FIG. 13, to hold the interior of the compressivelymolding apparatus 40 in the state heated to a predetermined temperatureso that the fixation treatment of the collected lumber is carried out.

At this time, when the fixation treatment is carried out, the heaters Hare controlled in heating so that the internal temperature of thecompressively molding apparatus 40 is maintained at 180° C. similar tothe heating water vapor, and the fixation treatment time is set to 20hours.

After the steps including the softening treatment step for softening andtreating the plurality of thinned-out woods 2, the pressing andcompression step for molding the softened thinned-out woods 2 into apredetermined shape, the adhesive spreading step for spreading anadhesive to the thinned-out woods 2 molded into a predetermined shape,and the fixation treatment step for laminating the thinned-out woods 2coated with the adhesive to carry out the fixation treatment by theheating device, a collected lumber having the thinned-out woods 2collected is obtained.

The second producing process for the collected lumber according to thesecond embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS. 14 to 16.The second producing process comprises the softening treatment step forsoftening and treating the plurality of thinned-out woods 2, thepressing and compression step for pressing and compressing the softenedthinned-out woods 2 to mold them into a predetermined shape, thefixation treatment step for subjecting the pressed and compressedthinned-out woods 2 to the fixation treatment through heating watervapor or a heater, the adhesive spreading step for spreading theadhesive to the surfaces of the thinned-out woods 2 subjected to thefixation treatment, and the molding step for laminating the thinned-outwoods coated with the adhesive to each other to mold them while curingthe adhesive. The second producing process is basically similar to theaforementioned first producing process except that the fixationtreatment is carried out in connection with the thinned-out woods 2prior to the lamination and collection of the thinned-out woods 2, andthe molding apparatus used in the molding step comprises a clampingdevice having a simple construction since the thinned-out woods 2subjected to the fixation treatment in advance are laminated and molded.

The softening treatment step carried out in the second producing processcan be also carried out by either method of the water vapor heatingdevice 10, the hot water 21 filled in the water tank 20 or thehigh-frequency heating device 30, similar to the aforementioned firstproducing process. Accordingly, the softening treatment step is referredto the explanation in connection with the first producing process, andthe explanation thereof is omitted.

Next, the pressing and compression step and the fixation treatment stepof the thinned-out woods 2 are carried out by a pressing apparatus 70shown in FIGS. 14 and 15. The pressing apparatus 70 basically has aconstruction similar to that of the pressing apparatus 60 used in thefirst producing process except that since the pressing and compressionstep as well as the fixation treatment are carried out, a water vaporjetting device and a heater for the fixation treatment are installed.

In FIG. 14, the pressing apparatus 70 is provided with an apparatus body71 formed to be a lengthwise tubular configuration having a rectangularsection (formed to be long in a direction vertical to paper surface),and a rod hole 72 is bored in the upper wall of the apparatus body 71. Ahydraulic cylinder 73 is connected at one end to the rod hole 72 outsideof the apparatus body 71, a press rod 75 having a mold of press 74mounted thereon is slidably inserted into the other end inside theapparatus body 71. The mold of press 74 is provided with a moldinggroove 74A for molding the softened thinned-out woods 2 into apredetermined shape, and a water vapor hole 74B through which heatingwater vapor jetted out of the water vapor jetting apparatus provided onthe apparatus body 71. The water vapor jetting apparatus jets theheating water vapor from four walls of the apparatus body 71. The watervapor pressure jetted out of the water vapor jetting apparatus is set to5-16 kgf/cm² or more, and the heating temperature is preferably set inthe range of from 130° C. to 200° C., particularly preferably, 150° C.to 180° C.

At the lower part internally of the apparatus body 71, another mold ofpress 76 is fixedly mounted opposedly to the mold of press 74. The moldof press 76 is provided with a molding groove 76A for molding thethinned-out woods 2 in cooperation with the molding groove 74A of theupper mold of press 74 and a water vapor hole 76B similar to the watervapor hole 74B of the mold of press 74. The molding grooves 74A and 76Bconstitute, in a paired relation, a predetermined molding shape (squarein the pressing apparatus 70), to mold the thinned-out woods 2 arrangedbetween the molding grooves 74A and 76A into a predetermined shape.

The following procedure is taken to compressively mold the thinned-outwoods 2 softened via the softening treatment step by the pressingapparatus 70 constructed as described above. First, the thinned-outwoods 2 are arranged between the molding grooves 74A and 76A of themolds of press 74 and 76, after which the press rod 75 is pressed andmoved downward through the hydraulic cylinder 73. Thereby, the mold ofpress 74 presses and compresses the thinned-out woods 2 from the topunder a predetermined pressure. At this time, since the thinned-outwoods 2 are in the softened state, it is compressively molded into apredetermined shape (square) by cooperation of the molding groove 74A inthe upper mold of press 74 with the molding groove 76A in the lower moldof press 76 (see FIG. 14). Thereby, the pressing and compression stepcompletes.

Subsequently, the heating water vapor from the water vapor jettingapparatus is jetted out of four walls of the apparatus body 71. The thusjetted heating water vapor passes through the water vapor holes 74B and76B of the molds of press 74 and 76 and is jetted against thethinned-out woods 2 arranged between the molding grooves 74A and 76A.Thereby, the thinned-out woods 2 are subjected to the fixation treatmentso as to permanently hold a predetermined shape after compressivemolding.

The above fixation treatment can be also carried out by using a pressingapparatus 70 shown in FIG. 15. The pressing apparatus 70 shown in FIG.15 is constructed similarly to the pressing apparatus 70 shown in FIG.14 and has a feature in that heaters H are disposed in the vicinity ofboth the right and left side walls of an apparatus body 71. That is,similarly to FIG. 14, the fixation treatment for the thinned-out woods 2is carried out in such a manner that the heaters are energized, whileholding the state of FIG. 15, to heat the interior of the apparatus body71 to a predetermined temperature, where the state is maintained for apredetermined time. In the fixation treatment as described, the heatersH are controlled in heating so as to maintain the internal temperatureof the apparatus body 71 at approximately 180° C., and the time for thefixation treatment is set to 20 hours.

After the pressing and compression step and the fixation treatment step,the adhesive spreading step for spreading the adhesive to the surfacesof the thinned-out woods 2. This adhesion spreading step is the same asthat in the first producing process, and it is referred to theexplanation of the first producing process, explanation of which isomitted.

Next, the molding step for laminating the thinned-out woods 2 coatedwith the adhesive in the adhesive spreading step to each other to moldthem while curing the adhesive is carried out. The molding step asdescribed is carried out by a clamping device shown in FIG. 16. In FIG.16, the clamping device 80 is composed of a base 81 on which thethinned-out woods 2 are placed in a state laminated with each other, andthree clamps 82, 83 and 84 arranged on both the right and left sides andon the upper side of the base. The clamp 82 has a press member 87mounted on one end of a press rod 86 which is pressed and moved by ahydraulic cylinder 85. The clamp 83 has a press member 90 mounted on oneend of a press rod 89 which is pressed and moved by a hydraulic cylinder88. The clamp 84 is composed of a hydraulic cylinder 91, a press rod 92and a press member 93.

In carrying out the clamping of the thinned-out woods 2 by the clampingdevice 80 constructed as described above, the thinned-out woods 2 areclamped under a clamping pressure of approximately 10 kgf/cm² by theclamps 82, 83 and 84 at a normal temperature (approximately, 25° C.).The clamping time for holding the thinned-out woods 2 in the clampedstate is set to 15 hours. Alternatively, the molding step for carryingout the clamping may be carried out in a high temperature state such asunder the heating water vapor.

In clamping the thinned-out woods 2 coated with the adhesive by theclamping device 80, the thinned-out woods 2 are firstly placed on thebase 81 in a laminated state, and after this, the hydraulic cylinders85, 88 and 91 in the clamps 82, 83 and 84, respectively, are driven topress and move the press rods 86, 89 and 92. Thereby, the thinned-outwoods 2 are clamped in the lateral direction and downward by clampingmembers 87, 90 and 93 so that the clamped state is maintained for apredetermined time of clamping. The adhesive spread on the thinned-outwoods 2 are cured while carrying out the clamping, whereby a collectedlumber having the thinned-out woods 2 collected is produced.

As described above in detail, in any of the first and second producingprocesses according to the second embodiment, the plurality ofthinned-out woods 2 are subjected to the softening treatment in thesoftening treatment step, and after this, the thinned-out woods 2 aresubjected to the pressing and compression in the pressing andcompression step to thereby obtain a predetermined shape. Therefore,even in the case where the thinned-out woods 2 are molded into a curvedshape, it is possible to produce a collected lumber having a goodmolding appearance resulting from a combination of deformations ofannual rings by collecting together the thinned-out woods 2 into apredetermined shape without being affected by the shape of thethinned-out woods 2 and without formation of a clearance between thethinned-out woods 2.

Further, according to the first producing process, the plurality ofthinned-out woods 2 adhere to each other through the adhesive and thenfixed, whereas according to the second producing process, the pluralityof thinned-out woods 2 are fixed and then adhere to each other throughthe adhesive. It is therefore possible to suitably select the number ofthinned-out woods 2 to be used, to thereby enable the production of thecollected lumber which can be used over a wide range of the buildingmaterials.

Furthermore, in any of the first producing process and the secondproducing process, the thinned-out woods 2 are subjected to the fixationtreatment through the heating water vapor or the heater. It is thereforepossible to early render the thinned-out woods usable for the buildingmaterials which is excellent in dimension stability, whereby a residualstress of the collected lumber can be removed to shorten the agingperiod, thus improving the productivity. Moreover, since the thinned-outwoods 2 to be used for the collected lumber does not particularlyrequire the machining such as chamfering, it is possible to make thecollected lumber and the production cost thereof remarkably low.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment,but it is of course noted that various improvements and modificationscan be made without departing the subject matter of the presentinvention. For example, while the collected lumbers according to thesecond embodiment have been explained taking an example of the collectedlumber having a rectangular parallelepiped shape, it is apparent that ifa shape of the mold of press 46 and the like to be used for thecompressively molding apparatus 40 is variously changed, collectedlumbers having various desired shapes can be obtained.

(Third Embodiment)

Next, a collected lumber and the method of producing the collectedlumber of the third embodiment will be explained with reference to FIGS.1 to 7 and 28. First, the constitution of the collected lumber will beexplained by referring to FIGS. 17 and 18. In FIG. 17, the collectedlumber 1 is produced by compressing and collecting the thinned-out woods2 with a reinforcing member P (described later) and an adhesive placedbetween a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 (12 pieces in the collectedlumber 1 in FIG. 17), and further by performing a fixation treatmentthrough a heating device. Here, each thinned-out wood 2 used is athinned-out woods of Japanese red wood, Japanese cypress, etc., removedin the process of growing. Also the thinned-out wood 2 used is athinned-out wood having a relatively uniform diameter measuring about 15cm at the bottom end 2A and about 10 cm at the tip end 2B.

Furthermore, in the collected lumber 1, the bottom end 2A and tip end 2Bof the thinned-out woods 1 2 are alternately arranged both in thevertical and horizontal rows. To take the horizontal row of thethinned-out wood 2 placed in the topmost position in the collectedlumber 1 for example, when the thinned-out woods 2 are arranged (thethinned-out wood 2 in the extreme right position in the horizontal row)in such a manner that the bottom end 2A will come on the end face side,the thinned-out woods 2 in the row are so arranged that the tip end 2Bwill come on the end face side of the collected lumber 1. Then, thethinned-out wood 2 arranged next has its bottom end 2A on the end faceside of the collected lumber 1, and furthermore the next thinned-outwood 2 is arranged with its tip end 2B on the end face side of thecollected lumber 1. The correlation between these thinned-out woods 2 ismaintained in both the vertical and horizontal rows of the collectedlumber 1. When the thinned-out woods 2 are arranged as described above,there will hardly occur a gap between the thinned-out woods 2 and theamount of the adhesive 3 to be used can be decreased.

Furthermore, the adhesive 3 is used to bond the thinned-out woods 2 witheach other; in the present embodiment various types of adhesives areusable as in the case of the first and second embodiments describedabove. For example, heat curing adhesives such as a phenolic adhesivecomposed of a phenolic resin as a main component and a resorcinol resinadhesive composed of a resorcinol resin as a main component are bestsuited for use. Other usable heat curing adhesives are amelamine-formaldehyde resin adhesive composed of a melamine-formaldehyderesin as a main component, a urea resin adhesive composed of a urearesin as a main component, and an epoxy resin adhesive composed of anepoxy resin as a main component. In addition to these heat curingadhesives, it is possible to use a water based polymer-isocyanateadhesive composed of isocyanate and water based high polymer molecule asmain components, and a polyvinyl acetate resin adhesive. Here, inchoosing an adhesive to be used, it is desirable to take intoconsideration the cost of the adhesive, type of solvent, and usage ofthe collected lumber.

The reinforcing member P is arranged in each position where corners ofthe thinned-out woods 2 meet each other. And a plurality of suchreinforcing members P are interposed along the lengthwise direction ofthe collected lumber 1. Here the reinforcing member P will be explainedby referring to FIG. 19. The reinforcing member P is composed of ametallic material such as aluminum, a plastic material such as nylon,and an inorganic material such as alumina and carbon fibers which areeasy to mold, and is constituted of a shaft P1 having a specific lengthand a plurality of hooks P2 outwardly protruding at a specific spacingfrom around the shaft P1.

In each reinforcing member P, as shown in FIG. 7, the shaft P1 isarranged along the lengthwise direction of each thinned-out wood 2, andthe hook P2 is press fitted into the thinned-out woods 2 in thecompression process (described later), thus securely connecting andfixing the thinned-out woods 2 to each other not only in the radialdirection but also in the lengthwise direction. The state of thethinned-out woods 2 thus connected and fixed to each other by thereinforcing member P is shown in FIG. 20. FIG. 20 is a schematic viewshowing the thinned-out woods 2 of the collected lumber 1 which areconnected and secured to each other by the reinforcing member P. It isunderstood that, as shown in FIG. 20, the reinforcing member P, in thecollected lumber, connects and fixes the thinned-out woods 2 to eachother both in the radial direction and in the lengthwise direction.

Next, the collected lumber 4 shown in FIG. 18 will be explained. Thecollected lumber 4 is basically the same in constitution as thecollected lumber 1 shown in FIG. 17 with the exception of varieddiameters of thinned-out wood 5 in use. The collected lumber 4 isproduced by using the reinforcing member P and the adhesive 3 among aplurality of thinned-out woods 5 (20 pieces in the collected lumber 4 inFIG. 18), compressing and collecting the thinned-out woods 5, andfurther performing the fixation treatment with heating water vapor or aheater.

Here, each thinned-out wood 5 used is a thinned-out wood measuring about6 cm to 20 cm in mean diameter. When the thinned-out woods 5 arearranged to form a collected lumber, the thinned-out woods 5 areselected with their bottom end diameter and their tip end diameter takeninto consideration to see whether or not their mean diameter comeswithin the above-mentioned specific range. Therefore, the thinned-outwoods 5 differ from the thinned-out woods 2 of the collected lumber 1shown in FIG. 17, and are not particularly required to be assembled withtheir bottom ends and tip ends alternately arranged. However, it isdesirable that, with the general shape of the collected lumber 4 takeninto consideration, the thinned-out woods 5 be properly arranged. Inthis case, the thinned-out woods of various diameters generally decreaseby half in value in use, thus becoming unserviceable. In the aforesaidcollected lumber 4, however, the thinned-out woods have a sufficientvalue in use.

The adhesive 3 is the same as one used in the collected lumber 1 shownin FIG. 17 and therefore will not be described. The reinforcing member Palso is the same as the reinforcing member P used in the collectedlumber 1 and will not be described.

Subsequently, a process for producing collected lumbers 1 and 4 of theabove-described constitution will be explained. The collected lumbers 1and 4 are produced through a softening process for softening thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 by heating a plurality of thinned-out woods 2and 5, a reinforcing member arranging process for arranging thereinforcing member P between the softened thinned-out woods 2 and 5along the lengthwise direction of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5, anadhesive spreading process for spreading the adhesive to the surface ofthe thinned-out woods 2 and 5, a compression process for pressing tocompress the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 coated with the adhesive on thesurface of the reinforcing member P arranged between the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5, to form a collected lumber of a predetermined shape, anda fixation treatment process for carrying out a fixation treatment tothe collected lumber through heating water vapor or a heater.

The heating treatment in the softening process is carried out by the useof a water vapor heating device 10 (see FIG. 3), hot water 21 (see FIG.4) filled in a water tank 20, or a high-frequency heating device 30 (seeFIG. 5) as in the first and second embodiments described above. Sincethis softening process is carried out in the same manner as the firstand second embodiments, the first embodiment is to be referred to forfurther detailed explanation and will not be described herein.

Subsequently explained are a reinforcing member arranging process forarranging the reinforcing member P between the thinned-out woods 5 thathave been softened by heating treatment by the aforementioned heatingtreatment process, an adhesive spreading process for spreading anadhesive to the surface of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5, a compressionprocess for forming a collected lumber in a predetermined form bycompressing the thinned-out woods reinforced with the reinforcing memberP and coated with the adhesive on the surface, and a fixation treatmentprocess for fixing the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 and the reinforcingmember P into the collected lumber by heating water vapor or a heater.

After the process for arranging the reinforcing member, the adhesivespreading process, the compression process and the fixation treatmentprocess are carried out by the use of a compressively molding apparatus40 (see FIG. 21, etc.) having the same constitution as one used in thefirst and second embodiments. The first embodiment is to be referred tofor the constitution of the compressively molding apparatus 40, which,therefore, will not be explained.

Next explained is a process for producing the collected lumber 1, 4 bycarrying out the reinforcing member arranging process, the adhesivespreading process for spreading a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5that have been softened by the heating treatment, the compressionprocess, and the fixation treatment process by using the compressivelymolding apparatus 40. Here, prior to the use of each of theabove-described processes, molds of press 46, 49, 52 and 54 are to beheld in a state shown in FIG. 21.

First, with a predetermined number of reinforcing members P arrangedbetween a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 and 5 softened through theaforesaid processes, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are laminated andplaced in a pressure vessel 41, and are held in this laminated state bycooperation with the molds of slide-press 55 and 56 (see FIG. 21). Atthis time, the thinned-out woods 2 having approximately the samediameter are laminated with their bottom and tip ends alternatelyarranged as described above. The thinned-out woods 5 having differentdiameters are laminated with the shape of a collected lumber taken intoconsideration as described above.

Thereafter the adhesive is injected out from the nozzle 57 to thesurface of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5. The adhesive thus injectedpasses through water vapor holes 46A, 49A, 52A and 54A of the molds ofpress 46, 49, 52 and 54, and through the water vapor holes 55a and 56Aof the molds of slide-press 55 and 56, being emitted out to thethinned-out woods 2 and 5. Then, after the predetermined quantity ofadhesive is injected, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are left standstillfor about five minutes until the adhesive is evenly spread to the entiresurface of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5, thus completing the adhesivespreading process.

After the injection of the adhesive to the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 asdescribed above, the compression process is accomplished to thepercentage of compression set of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5. In thiscompression process, a press rod 47 is first pressed to move through ahydraulic cylinder 45 disposed above, thereby feeding the mold 46 ofpress downwardly to compress the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 with aspecific pressure. At this time, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5, being ina softened state, are compressed through the mold of press 46 incooperation with the molds of press 49, 52 and 54 and the molds ofslide-press 55 and 56 of press. Also, the molds of slide-press 55 and 56are moved downwardly simultaneously with the pressing of the mold 46 ofpress, finally coming into contact with the inside surface of the molds49 and 52 of press. Subsequently, the mold 46 completes the verticalcompression when it has moved for the specific stroke in accordance withthe percentage of compression set, thus stopping operation.

Next, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are compressed in a horizontaldirection through the hydraulic cylinders 48 and 51, the press rods 50and 53, the molds 49 and 52, and the molds of slide-press 55 and 56. Thethinned-out woods 2 and 5 receive a horizontal pressure in FIG. 21 whencompressed, being compressively molded. The compression process iscompleted when the molds 49 and 52 have moved through the specificstroke according to the percentage of compression set.

With the above-described compression, the hook P2 protruding on theshaft P1 of the reinforcing member P is pressed in from the surface ofthe thinned-out woods 2 and 5, which are thus fixedly connected to oneanother in their radial direction and lengthwise direction through thehook P2 in the reinforcing member P. Such a state of completion is shownin FIG. 22.

The time required for this compression process depends on the type of anadhesive to be used because the time required for bonding varies withthe type of the adhesive; generally the compression requires about 30minutes to bond the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 through the adhesive.Thus, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are compressed to be collected intoa form of a collected body as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18. At this time,the adhesive 3 remains in the collected body in a solidified state (seeFIGS. 1 and 2).

Next, the collected body thus produced by bonding the thinned-out woods2 and 5 by the adhesive 3 is then subjected to a fixation treatment. Thefixation treatment will be explained with reference to FIG. 22. Thefixation treatment by jetting out heating water vapor to the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 from the water vapor jetting device with the collectedbody held in a state shown in FIG. 22. The heating water vapor jettedout from the water vapor jetting device is jetted out to the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 after passing through the water vapor holes 46A, 49A, 52Aand 54A of the molds 46, 49, 52 and 54 and through the water vapor holes55A and 56A of the molds of slide-press 55 and 56, thereby performingthe fixation treatment of the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 in the collectedlumber. The thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are thus fixed to permanently keepthe fixed shape. The thinned-out woods 2 and 5, being mutually connectedand fixed by the reinforcing member P. can hold the mutually fixed statepermanently.

At this time, a preferable temperature of the heating water vapor to bejetted out into the pressure vessel 41 from the water vapor jettingdevice is 180° C.; the water vapor pressure is set at 10 kgf/cm² and thefixation treatment time is set at about one hour.

The fixation treatment described above can be done, as shown in FIG. 28,also by heating the interior of the compressively molding apparatus 40by the heater H disposed in the vicinity of the right and left sidewalls of the compressively molding apparatus 40. That is, the fixationtreatment of the collected lumber is accomplished by heating by theheater H and holding the interior of the compressively molding apparatus40 at a predetermined temperature for a specific period of time whilemaintaining the collected body in the state shown in FIG. 28 as in FIG.22.

At this time, in performing the fixation treatment, each heater H iscontrolled to hold the interior temperature of the compression moldingapparatus 40 at 180° C., and the fixation treatment time is set at 20hours.

After the compression of the fixation treatment, the collected lumbers 1and 4 explained in FIGS. 17 and 18 are obtained. The collected lumbers 1and 4 thus produced can be provided with a characteristic design ofcollected and molded natural grains when used as a heartwood of pillars,beams or non-structural members in an actual house; it is also possibleto use the collected lumbers 1 and 4 with decorative laminated sheetsattached on four sides.

The collected lumbers 1 and 4 according to the present embodiment asexplained in detail are obtainable by arranging the reinforcing member Pbetween the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 after a plurality of thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 are heat-treated for softening by the water vapor heatingdevice 10, hot water 21 in the water tank 20, or the high-frequencyheating device 30, and then by carrying out a series of treatments bythe adhesive spreading process, compression process and fixationtreatment process by the use of the compressively molding apparatus 40.Therefore, it is possible to firmly fix the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 toeach other in either of the radial direction and the lengthwisedirection. The collected lumber thus obtained, therefore, is a low-costlumber having a great strength and usable in a wide range ofapplications as building materials without going through a process forobtaining laminas and veneers as in the case of conventional collectedlumbers and a vertical joint process for vertically jointing the laminasand veneers.

In producing the collected lumbers 1 and 4 according to the presentembodiment, the thinned-out woods 2 and 5 are mutually connected andfixed through the reinforcing member P and an adhesive and then aresubjected to the fixation treatment; therefore it is possible topermanently maintain the compressively molded shape of the thinned-outwoods 2 and 5 which are thus mutually connected and fixed through thereinforcing member P and the adhesive. It therefore has become possibleto reduce, to about one hour, an aging period which, in conventionalprocesses, needs about one week, thereby remarkably enhancingproductivity of the collected lumbers 1 and 4.

Furthermore, for producing the collected lumbers 1 and 4 according tothe present embodiment, it is possible to immediately carry out, afterbarking the thinned-out woods 2 and 5, a series of treating processesincluding the softening process, the reinforcing member arrangingprocess, the adhesive spreading process using the compressively moldingapparatus 40, the compression process, and the fixation treatmentprocess. Thus it has become possible to dispense with such aconventional machining process as a pre-chamfering process at the stageof thinned-out wood, which realizes production of the collected lumbers1 and 4 at an extremely low cost.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to theembodiment described above and various modifications and changes arepossible within the scope of the invention. For example, in the presentembodiment, rectangular collected lumbers 1 and 4 have been explained asshown in FIGS. 17 and 18. However, it is apparent that various types ofcollected lumbers of desired shapes can be obtained by changing theshape of the molds 46 to be used in the compressively molding apparatus40.

In the third embodiment, the reinforcing member shown in FIG. 19 is usedas the reinforcing member P; it, however, is to be noticed that thereinforcing member P is not limited thereto and may be, for example, areinforcing member Q having hooks Q2 protruding alternately from bothsides of the shaft Q1 as in the case of the first modification shown inFIG. 23. Further, as the second modification shown in FIG. 24, it may bea reinforcing member R having L-shaped hooks R2 protruding alternatelyfrom both sides of the shaft R1; and further as the third modificationshown in FIG. 25 it may be a star-shaped reinforcing member S having ahook S1 protruding in three directions from the center. Also as thefourth modification shown in FIG. 26, it may be a reinforcing member Thaving saw tooth-shaped hook T2 formed around the shaft T1.

Furthermore, as the fifth and sixth modifications shown in FIGS. 27 (A)and 27 (B), the reinforcing member may be a reinforcing member U (FIG.17 (A)) with a hook U2 formed in eight directions from the shaft U1, andalso may be a reinforcing member V having four arrow-shaped hooks V2extending from the shaft V1.

(Fourth Embodiment)

Subsequently, a wood building material and a process for producing thewood building material of the fourth embodiment will be explained withreference to FIGS. 29 to 36. First, the constitution of the woodbuilding material and a collected wood building material will beexplained by referring to FIGS. 29 to 32.

The thinned-out wood 2 used in the fourth embodiment measures about 3 to4 m in length and 10 to 20 cm in diameter, and is classified largelyinto two types in size when cut to a predetermined width L for thepurpose of standardization, described later.

To describe concretely, as shown in FIG. 31, the thinned-out wood 2 canbe classified into a cut thinned-out wood A inclusive of the maximumdiameter of the thinned-out wood 2 and having as large a height as thediameter of the wood, and a cut thinned-out wood B obtained by cuttingthe remaining portion. FIG. 32 is a side view of the cut thinned-outwood A and the cut thinned-out wood B; the cut thinned-out wood A has agrain M which gradually becomes coarse as it goes from the upper andlower ends 101 and 102 towards the center 103; and in the cutthinned-out wood B also, the grain M gradually becomes coarse as it goesfrom one end 104 towards the center 105 though not so much as the cutthinned-out wood A.

Here the constitution of the wood building materials A' and B' and thecollected wood building material C of the fourth embodiment that havebeen subjected to compressive molding and fixation treatment, describedlater, will be explained. In the wood building material A', as shown inFIG. 29 (a), the grain M that gradually grows coarse as it goes from theupper and lower ends 101 and 102 towards the center 103 is changed to analmost uniform and fine grain M'. Similarly, even in the wood buildingmaterial B', the grain M is changed to an almost uniform and fine grainM' from one end 104 to the center 105 as shown in FIG. 29 (b). Ascompared with a non-processed thinned-out wood which has littlecommodity value, the wood building materials A' and B' having a straightgrain M' are provided with a high additional value through thecompressive molding process and the fixation treatment process.

Since the thinned-out wood 2 used as a raw material is a small-diameterwood and moreover deceases in height by approximately one-half aftercompressive molding and fixation treatment, it sometimes lacks in asurface area depending on a place of application. In this case, a largercollected wood building material C is obtainable as shown in FIG. 30 byfurther collecting the wood building materials A' and B' alreadyproduced.

In the collected wood building material C shown in FIG. 30, the woodbuilding materials A' and B' are mutually bonded by an adhesive andclamped at the time of bonding as described later, and will not easilyseparate. It is therefore possible to assemble the wood buildingmaterials A' and B' to a desired height suitable for use in wideapplications.

Subsequently, the process for producing the wood building materials A'and B' stated above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 31, 32, 33and 34. The wood building materials A' and B' are produced through thestandardization process for standardizing the thinned-out wood 2 afterbarking, by cutting in the lengthwise direction (a vertical direction inthe drawing) to a predetermined width L, to obtain the cut thinned-outwoods A and B, the softening process for softening the cut thinned-outwoods A and B by heating the plurality of thus standardized cutthinned-out woods A and B, the compression process for forming the thussoftened cut thinned-out woods A and B by compressing to a predeterminedshape, and the fixation treatment process for fixing the cut thinned-outwoods A and B thus compressed. Furthermore, the collected wood buildingmaterial C is produced by spreading the adhesive to one or two sides ofeach of the plurality of wood building materials A' and B' obtained,after going through the standardization process, softening process,compression process, and fixation treatment process, and further by thecollecting process for collecting and clamping the materials.

First, therefore, barking and cutting to be performed in thestandardization process will be explained with reference of FIGS. 31 and32. FIG. 31 shows the cross section of the thinned-out wood 2, whosediameter is of the order of 10 to 20 cm. First, the thinned-out wood 2,after barking by a known method, is cut to a predetermined width Linclusive of the maximum diameter of the wood, thus obtaining the cutthinned-out wood A. Next, the remaining portion of the cut thinned-outwood A is similarly cut to the predetermined width L to obtain the cutthinned-out wood B. The cut thinned-out wood thus obtained, when viewedsideways, is as shown in FIG. 32, which shows that grain M of the cutthinned-out wood A becomes coarse as it goes from the upper and lowerends 101 and 102 to the center 103; and the cut thinned-out wood B alsohas a similar grain M growing coarse as it goes from one end 104 to thecenter 105.

Subsequently explained is a process for softening the wood through heattreatment using water vapor in a compressively molding apparatus D1shown in FIG. 33. To explain the constitution of the compressivelymolding apparatus D1 first, the compressively molding apparatus D1 isequipped with a pressure vessel 111 (formed long in a vertical directionin the drawing) which is formed in a long cylindrical form having asquare cross section. The pressure vessel 111 has a rod hole 110 in theupper wall.

Into the rod hole 110 is slidably inserted a press rod 114, which isconnected at one end with a hydraulic cylinder 112 outside of thepressure vessel 111 and attached with a mold of slide-press 113 on theother end inside the pressure vessel 111. When the cut thinned-out woodsA and B undergo pressing for compression, the press rod 114 is moveddownwards through the hydraulic cylinder 112. With the downward movementof the press rod 114, the mold 113 presses the cut thinned-out woods Aand B from above. Here, the pressure applied by the hydraulic cylinder112 to the press rod 114 is changed according to the percentage ofcompression set of the cut thinned-out woods A and B, for example to 15kgf/cm² at the percentage of compression set of 50%, and 10 kgf/cm² atthe percentage of compression set of 30%.

On the mold of slide-press 113 connected to the forward end of the pressrod 114 are formed a plurality of independent press sections 113a,which, in cooperation with a mold of press 115 described later, producethe cut thinned-out woods A and B of a predetermined shape. Furthermore,the mold of slide-press 113 is provided with a multitude of water vaporholes 113b, from which water vapor is jetted out to the cut thinned-outwoods A and B arranged below, in the heat treatment and fixationtreatment described later.

Also, in the pressure vessel 111 is fixedly installed a mold of press115 in the lower position. On the mold 115 are formed a plurality ofpartition walls 115a. A plurality of cut thinned-out woods A and B to becompressed are placed one by one between these partition walls 115a.Here, since the cut thinned-out wood B is low as compared with the cutthinned-out wood A, a spacer SP is used in order to compensate for lackof height to obtain a uniform compression pressure. Furthermore, themold of press 115 is provided with a number of water vapor holes 115b,from which water vapor passes to be jetted out to the cut thinned-outwoods A and B.

The compressively molding apparatus D1 has a water vapor jetting device116 which jets heating water vapor from the four walls in the pressurevessel 111 against the cut thinned-out woods A and B held separately bythe mold of press 115. Here, the water vapor jetting device 116 ispreferably set to jet the water vapor at a pressure of 5 to 16 kgf/cm²and more and at a heating temperature ranging from 130° C. to 200° C.,particularly within the range of from 150° C. to 180° C.

Hereafter the process for heating treatment to be carried out in thecompressively molding apparatus D1 will be explained.

First, the thinned-out woods A and B thus barked and cut are placed oneby one among the plurality of partition walls 115a on the mold of press115, then the heating water vapor intermittently jetted out from thewater vapor jetting device 116. During the emission of the heating watervapor, the cut thinned-out woods A and B are softened uniformly; and theinterior of the compressively molding apparatus D1 is heated up to 70°to 160° C. by the heating water vapor being jetted from the water vaporjetting device 116 into the compressively molding apparatus D1. Here,the water vapor jetted intermittently is preferred to raise thetemperature in the compressively molding apparatus D1 to about 150° C.and to maintain the water vapor pressure in the compressively moldingapparatus D1 at 5 kgf/cm². Also, the heating time is set at about 1 to 2hours.

Subsequently, an explanation will be given of the compression processfor forming the cut thinned-out woods A and B heated for softening bythe heat treatment process and the fixation treatment process for fixingthrough the heating water vapor or the heater.

The compression process and the fixation treatment process are carriedout through the compressively molding apparatus D1 previously explained.Prior to performing these processes, the mold of slide-press 113 is heldin a state shown in FIG. 33.

The plurality of cut thinned-out woods A and B thus softened asdescribed above are held by the partition wall 115a formed on the moldof press 115 positioned in the lower part of the pressure vessel 111(see FIG. 33). At this time, it is taken into consideration that the cutthinned-out wood B under which the spacer SP is inserted, and the cutthinned-out wood A are uniformly compressed with the same pressure.

Thereafter, the press rod 114 is forced to move downwards through thehydraulic cylinder 112, thus compressing the cut thinned-out wood A andB from above with a specific pressure. At this time, the cut thinned-outwoods A and B heated are in a softened state and therefore the mold 113aformed independently on the upper mold of slide-press 113 and the moldof press 115 cooperate to compress the woods one by one easily into apredetermined shape, thus completing the compression process.

Next, the cut thinned-out woods A and B that have been compressed asdescribed above undergo the fixation treatment. The fixation treatmentwill be explained by referring to FIG. 34. With the cut thinned-outwoods A and B held in a state shown in FIG. 34, the fixation treatmentis carried out by jetting out the heating water vapor to the thinned-outwoods from the water vapor jetting device 116.

The heating water vapor jetted from the water vapor jetting device 116is jetted to the cut thinned-out woods A and B from the water vapor hole115b of the mold of press 115 and the water vapor hole 113b of the moldof slide-press 113, thereby performing the fixation treatment of the cutthinned-out woods A and B. The cut thinned-out woods A and B are thusfixed in the shape permanently.

In this case, as fixation treatment conditions, the optimum heatingtemperature in the compressively molding apparatus D1 is set at around180° C. which is higher than that for compression treatment; the watervapor pressure in the compressively molding apparatus D1, at 10 kgf/cm²; and the fixation treatment time, to one hour.

The fixation treatment described above can be done also by heating theinterior of the compressively molding apparatus D1 by the heater Hdisposed near both the right and left side walls of the compressivelymolding apparatus D1 as shown in FIG. 35. That is, with the cutthinned-out woods A and B held in a state shown in FIG. 34, the heater His operated to heat the interior of the compressively molding apparatusD1 up to a predetermined temperature; and by holding this heated statefor a specific period of time, the fixation treatment of the cutthinned-out woods A and B is accomplished.

At this time, when the fixation treatment is carried out, each heater His so controlled as to hold the interior temperature of thecompressively molding apparatus D1 at 180° C.; and the time required forthe fixation treatment is set to 20 hours.

After the completion of the fixation treatment, the wood buildingmaterials A' and B' shown in FIG. 29 are obtained. The wood buildingmaterials A' and B' thus obtained are usable as various non-structuralmembers and also may be further forwarded to the collecting process forcollecting the wood building materials A' and B' to form a larger-sizecollected wood building material C for wider applications.

The collecting process is performed by the use of a clamping device D2shown in FIG. 36. In FIG. 36, the clamping device D2 comprises a base140 on which the wood building materials A' and B' are arranged in onerow with their straight grain patterns directed in the verticaldirection, and three clamps 141, 142 and 143 disposed on the right andleft sides and on the upper side of the base 140. The clamp 141 has apress member 146 mounted on one end of a press rod 145 which is forcedto move by a hydraulic cylinder 144. Similarly the clamp 142 has a pressmember 149 mounted on one end of a press rod 148 which is forced to moveby a hydraulic cylinder 147. Further the clamp 143 comprises a hydrauliccylinder 150, press rod 151, and press member 152.

When the wood building materials A' and B' are clamped by the use of theclamping device D2 of the above-described constitution, the woodbuilding materials A' and B' are clamped to a clamping pressure of about10 kgf/cm² with the clamps 141, 142 and 143 at normal temperatures(about 25° C.) or lower. A clamping time during which the wood buildingmaterials A' and B' are held in the clamped stated is set to 15 hours.The compressively molding process may be carried out at hightemperatures using heated steam.

To clamp the wood building materials A' and B' coated with the adhesive,by the use of the clamping device D2, first the wood building materialsA' and B' are placed in one row with their straight grain patternsdirected vertically on the base 140, and then the hydraulic cylinders144, 145 and 150 in the clamps 141, 142 and 143 are driven to move thepress rods 145, 148 and 151. Thus the wood building materials A' and B'are clamped horizontally and downwardly by the press members 146, 149and 152, and are held in this clamped state for a specific period oftime. During this clamping operation, the adhesive spread on one side ortwo sides of the wood building materials A' and B' sets, thus producingthe collected wood building material C composed of the wood buildingmaterials A' and B'.

The adhesive is used to attach the wood building materials A' and B' toeach other; in the present invention various kinds of adhesives areused. For example, adhesives best suited for use are heat curingadhesives such as a phenolic resin adhesive composed of a phenolic resinas a main component and a resorcinol resin adhesive composed of aresorcinol resin as a main component. Also usable heat curing adhesivesare a melamine-formaldehyde resin adhesive composed of amelamine-formaldehyde resin, a urea resin adhesive composed of a urearesin as a main component, and an epoxy resin adhesive composed of anepoxy resin as a main component. In addition to these heat curingadhesives, also usable are water based polymer-isocyanate adhesivescomposed of isocyanate and water based polymer molecule, and polyvinylacetate resin adhesives. Here, in selecting an adhesive to be used, itis desirable to select a proper adhesive with the cost of the adhesive,type of solvent, and usage of the collected lumber taken into account.

The wood building materials A' and B' are compressed and collected intothe collected wood building material through the above-describedprocesses as shown in FIG. 36. At this time, the adhesive remains in asolidified state within the collected body.

The wood building materials A' and B' and the collected wood buildingmaterial C thus produced have a fine grain pattern, and are usable asbuilding materials, particularly, as high-grade interior finishingmaterials, for example as wood materials for floors, walls, ceilings,and furniture, and furthermore as face materials of fixtures.

The wood building materials A' and B' of the present embodimentparticularly explained above are obtained through a series of treatmentsincluding the softening process for softening the cut thinned-out woodsA and B obtained by cutting the thinned-out wood 2, a compressionprocess by using the compressively molding apparatus D1, andsubsequently the fixation treatment process. The collected wood buildingmaterial C is obtainable through the collecting process by clamping thewood building materials A' and B' by the clamping device D2.

In the wood building materials A' and B and the collected wood buildingmaterial C thus obtained, a fine grain pattern is seen. According to thepresent embodiment, it is possible to obtain, from naturally low-utilityvalue thinned-out wood 2, the wood building materials A' and B' having astraight grain pattern and the collected wood building material C whichare low-cost materials usable as varieties of high-grade buildingmaterials, while enabling the effective utilization of valuable forestresources.

It is to be noted that the present invention is not limited to thepresent embodiment and various improvements and modifications can bemade within the true spirit and scope of the present invention. Forexample, the process for producing the wood building materials A' and B'of the fourth embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 33 and 34, uses thecompressively molding apparatus D1 in which one mold of press moves; thepresent invention is not limited to the apparatus and any apparatuscapable of properly performing compressive molding may be used.

Furthermore, in the clamping process using the clamping device D2, thewood building materials A' and B' may be placed longitudinally, nothorizontally, on the base 140.

(Fifth Embodiment)

The fifth embodiment according to the present invention will bedescribed in detail with reference to FIGS. 37 to 40 and 43. First, theconstruction of a collected lumber according to the fifth embodimentwill be described with reference to FIG. 37. A collected lumber 1comprises a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 (e.g., 5 in the collectedlumber 1 shown in FIG. 37) and an adhesive 3 interposed between thethinned-out woods 2, which woods 2 are then mutually compressed andcollected and are also subjected to a fixation treatment through heatingwater vapor or a heater. The thinned-out woods 2 used herein are thoseremoved during the process of growing of Sugi (Cryptmeria japonica D.Don), a Japanese Cypress, and the like. As the thinned-out wood 2, a logis used of which diameter is relatively arranged in order having abottom end 2A of approximately 15 cm and a tip end 2B of approximately10 cm.

As shown in FIG. 37, when the thinned-out wood 2 is exposed with thebottom end 2A located on the end side, the thinned-out wood 2 adjacentto the first mentioned thinned-out wood 2 is exposed so that the tip end2B is located on the end side of the collected lumber 1. When thethinned-out woods 2 are exposed as described above, it is hard to form aclearance between the thinned-out woods when carrying out thecompressive molding and fixation treatment which will be describedlater, and in addition, the quantity of using the adhesive 3 can besaved.

The adhesive 3 is used to mutually bond the thinned-out woods 2, andvarious kinds of adhesives can be used in the present embodiment.Preferable adhesives include, for example, thermosetting adhesives suchas, a phenol adhesive mainly composed of phenol resin, a resorcinoladhesive mainly composed of resorcinol resin. Further, use can be madeof other thermosetting adhesives such as a melamine-formaldehyde resinmainly composed of melamine-formaldehyde resin, a urea resin adhesivemainly composed of urea resin, and an epoxy resin adhesive mainlycomposed of epoxy resin. In addition to these thermosetting adhesives, awater-based polymer-isocyanate adhesive mainly composed of an isocyanateand a water-based polymer, and a polyvinyl acetate resin adhesive can bealso used. In selecting adhesives to be used, it is preferable toconsider kinds of solvents, uses of collected lumber, and the like.

Annual ring patterns N on bottom ends 2A and tip ends 2B of thinned-outwoods 2 are compressively molded as described hereinafter, and thenfixed by fixation treatment while the molded shapes are kept on the endface 160 of the collected lumber 1 (In FIG. 1, only one end face isshown). Various kinds of annual ring patterns N can be formed bychanging the compressively molding conditions applied to the thinned-outwood 2, and the combination of type of trees, or by using thinned-outwoods 2 with different diameters. When a collected lumber 1 is cut inthe radial direction of thinned-out woods 2 to make boards, and when theboards are used as surfacing material of various products the collectedlumber 1 exhibits the unique decorative effect, therefore the collectedlumber 1 can thus be used for wide range applications usefully.

Next, the process for producing the collected lumbers 1 constructed asabove will be explained. The collected lumbers 1 are produced via thesteps of softening the thinned-out woods 2 by subjecting a plurality ofthinned-out woods 2 to heat treatment, coating an adhesive on thesurface of the softened thinned-out woods 2, pressing and compressingthe thinned-out woods having their surfaces coated with the adhesive toform a collected lumber 1 having a predetermined shape, and applying afixation treatment to the collected lumber 1 through heating water vaporand a heater as necessary.

The heat treatment carried out in the softening treatment step iscarried out by the water vapor heating device 10 (see FIG. 3), the hotwater 21 filled in the water tank 20 (see FIG. 4) and the high-frequencyheating device 30 (see FIG. 5), similarly to the first embodiment,second embodiment, and third embodiment previously described. Sincethese softening treatments are carried out similarly to theabove-described first embodiment, the detail of which is referred to theexplanation of the first embodiment and the explanation thereof isomitted.

The adhesive spreading step for applying an adhesive to the surfaces ofthe thinned-out woods 2 subjected to heating treatment and softened bythe above-described heating treatment processes, the pressing andcompressing step for pressing and compressing the thinned-out woods 2applied in the surfaces with the adhesive to form a collected lumberhaving a predetermined shape, and the fixation treatment step forsubjecting the collected lumber to fixation treatment through heatingwater vapor or a heater will be explained hereinafter.

The above mentioned adhesive spreading step and pressing and compressingstep and fixation treatment step are carried out through thecompressively molding apparatus 40 (see FIG. 21) having the samestructure as used in the first embodiment, the second embodiment and thethird embodiment described hereinbefore. The structure of thecompressively molding apparatus 40 is described in the first embodimentfor reference, and the explanation is omitted herein.

Next, the process for producing collected lumbers 1 by carrying out theadhesive spreading step, pressing and compressing step and fixationtreatment step of a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 softened by theabove-described heating treatment using the compressively moldingapparatus 40 will be explained. It is assumed that prior to carrying outthe aforementioned steps, the molds of press 46, 49, 52 and 54 are heldin the state shown in FIG. 38.

First, a plurality of thinned-out woods 2 softened through theabove-described steps are laminated and placed within the pressurevessel 41 to keep the laminated state of the thinned-out woods 2 bycooperation with the molds of slide-press 55 and 56 (see FIG. 38). Whenthinned-out woods 2 are laminated, thinned-out woods 2 with evendiameter are used or thinned-out woods 2 with different diameters areused as described hereinbefore depending on what annual ring pattern Non the end face 160 of the collected lumber 1 is expected. It ispossible to vary the annual ring pattern N on the end face 160 of thecollected lumber 1 to exhibit unique decorative effect by selecting thediameter of lumbers 1.

Thereafter, the adhesive is jetted against the surfaces of thethinned-out woods 2 from each of the nozzles 57. The jetted adhesivepasses through the water vapor holes 46A, 49A, 52A and 54A of the moldsof press 46, 49, 52, and 54, and the water vapor holes 55A and 56A ofthe molds of slide-press 55 and 56, and are jetted against thethinned-out woods 2. After the adhesive in a fixed amount is jetted, itis left for about 5 minutes in order that it is evenly spread over thesurfaces of the thinned-out woods 2. Then, the adhesive spreading stepis terminated.

After the adhesive was jetted against the thinned-out woods 2, thecompressively molding step is carried out in accordance with thepercentage of compression set. In this compressively molding step, apress rod 47 is first pressed and moved through an upper hydrauliccylinder 45 whereby the mold of press 46 presses and compresses thethinned-out woods 2 from the top under a predetermined pressure. Sinceat this time, the thinned-out woods 2 are in the softened state, theyare compressed through the mold of press 46 by cooperation between themolds of press 49, 52 and 54 and the molds of slide-press 55 and 56. Themolds of slide-press 55 and 56 are moved downward in synchronism withthe pressing state of the mold of press 46 and finally placed in contactwith the inner surface of the molds of press 49 and 52. The mold ofpress 46 completes its vertical compression and stops when moved apredetermined amount in accordance with the percentage of compressionset.

Next, compressive molding of the thinned-out woods 2 in the lateraldirection is carried out through hydraulic cylinders 48 and 51, thepress rods 50 and 53, molds of press 49 and 52, and the molds ofslide-press 55 and 56. By the compressive molding, the thinned-out woods2 receive the pressure in the lateral direction in FIG. 38 and are beingcompressed and molded. The compressively molding step terminates whenthe molds of press 49 and 52 have been moved a predetermined amount inaccordance with the percentage of compression set. This terminationstate is shown in FIG. 39.

The time of the compressively molding step depends on the kind ofadhesives since the adhesion time varies with the kind of adhesivesused. The thinned-out woods 2 are adhered to each other by carrying outthe compressively molding step for about 30 minutes. The thinned-outwoods 2 are thereby compressed and collected as shown in FIG. 37 to forma integral body. At this time, the adhesive remains in the integral bodyas a solidified adhesive 3 (see FIG. 37)

Next, the integral body having the thinned-out woods 2 thus obtainedadhered to each other through the adhesive 3 is subjected to thefixation treatment. The fixation treatment will be described withreference to FIG. 39. The fixation treatment is carried out by jettingthe heating water vapor against the thinned-out woods 2 from the watervapor jetting apparatus while holding the integral body in the state asshown in FIG. 39. The heating water vapor jetted out of the water vaporjetting apparatus passes through the water vapor holes 46A, 49A, 52A and54A of the molds of press 46, 49, 52 and 54, and the water vapor holes55A and 56A of the molds of slide-press 55 and 56, and are jettedagainst the thinned-out woods 2. The fixation treatment of thethinned-out woods 2 in the integral body is thereby carried out so thatthe thinned-out woods 2 are fixed so as to permanently hold theirshapes.

As the conditions for carrying out the fixation treatment, a temperatureof the heating water vapor jetted into the pressure vessel 41 from thewater vapor jetting apparatus is preferably 180° C., a water vaporpressure is set to 10 kgf/cm² and a time for fixation treatment is setto about one hour.

The above fixation treatment can be also carried out in a manner suchthat the interior of the compressively molding apparatus is heated byheaters H exposed of the compressively molding apparatus 40, as shown inFIG. 40. That is, similarly to FIG. 39, the heaters H are energized,while holding the integral body in the state shown in FIG. 40 to heatthe interior of the compressively molding apparatus 40 to apredetermined temperature, which state is held for a predetermined timeto thereby fix and treat the integral body.

In carrying out the fixation treatment, the heaters H are controlled inheating so that the internal temperature of the compressively moldingapparatus 40 is kept at 180° C. The time for fixation treatment is setto 20 hours.

After the completion of the aforementioned fixation treatment, thecollected lumbers 1 explained in connection with FIG. 37 are obtained.The collected lumber 1 manufactured as described herein above hasinherent unique annual ring pattern N, which exhibits an excellentdecorative effect, at the end face 160, and hardness according to JIS Z2117 of end of lumber (end face 160) of collected lumber 1 manufacturedby treating thinned-out woods 2 of Japanese red wood with a percentageof compression set of 40% using phenol and resorcinol resin adhesive is4.8 kgf/mm², and the hardness of end of lumber manufactured with apercentage of compression set of 60% is 8.0 kgf/mm².

A collected lumber 1 is manufactured by treating thinned-out woods 2 ofJapanese pine with a percentage of compression set of 20% using phenoland resorcinol resin adhesive, and the collected lumber is cut in thelongitudinal direction to reveal cross grain pattern or straight grainpattern on the cut surface. An abrasion test A is carried out on thesurface according to JAS (flooring) to obtain the result 150 μm of depthof abrasion for the collected lumber 1 with a percentage of compressionset of 20%, and 63 μm for the collected lumber 1 with a percentage ofcompression of 70%.

The abrasion test A according to JAS (flooring) is carried out using thetest equipment 170 illustrated in FIG. 43. Two disk samples with adiameter of about 20 mm are prepared and a hole with a diameter of 10 mmare provided at the center. A specimen 171 prepared as described aboveis fixed horizontally on a rotatable disk 172 of the test equipment 170,abrasive paper described in an abrasion test of building material andbuilding constituent in an abrasion paper method which satisfies thestandard stipulated in JIS A 1453 is wrapped on a rubber disk 173described in the abrasion test. Two rubber roll wrapped with theabrasive paper as described above are provided on the sample surface,and rotated 500 revolutions. After 500 revolutions, the change of thesurface of a specimen 171 is measured. The total weight loaded on onehalf of the specimen 171 is 1000 g including the rubber disk 173. Thedepth of abrasion on the surface of the specimen 171 is measured using asurface roughness meter.

The collected lumber 1 is cut in the radial direction of thinned-outwoods 2 to form boards, the board is used as surfacing material on widevariety of products. The collected lumber 1 is cut in the longitudinaldirection of thinned-out woods 2 to form boards with cross grainpattern, straight grain pattern, or mixed pattern exposed on the boardsurface, these patterns also exhibits excellent decorative effect, andthe board are used for wide variety of products.

The collected lumber as it is and board such as veneer manufactured byprocessing collected lumber 1 are used for various products describedherein under.

For example, the collected lumber 1 are used as building materials suchas pillars, girders, beams, sills, baseboards, treadborads, and fasciaboards. The collected lumber and board are also used as buildingmaterial and fitting of opening for building such as doors, upper railsfor doors, lower rails for doors, stiles for doors, upper rails forglass doors, lower rails for glass doors, stiles for glass doors,glazing bars for glass doors, beads for glass doors, louver doors, upperrails for netted doors, lower rails for netted doors, stiles for netteddoors, netting bars for netted doors, frames for doors, door stops fordoors, frame for double sliding windows, frame for fixed windows, rainshutter doors, boards for rain shutter doors, upper rails for rainshutter doors, lower rails for rain shutter doors, stiles for rainshutter doors, upper frames for rain shutter doors, and door cases.

The collected lumber 1 is used for exterior material for buildings suchas tiles, mosaic tiles, floor boards, ceiling boards, and wall boards.The collected lumber 1 is used for balustrades for windows ofpre-fabricated houses, stairs, stair balustrades, supports forbalustrades, balconies, veranda, gates, gate posts, gate doors, fences,and coping for walls. The collected lumber is used for furniture such asbeds, chairs, swinging chairs, benches, foot of chairs, desks, tables,conference tables, foot of tables, counters, TV boards, planters,service wagons, chests, side boards, cupboards, drawer chests, shoesracks, dressers, and shelf boards, and also for indoor small organizingtools such as garment hungers, magazine racks, news paper racks,umbrella stands, and slipper stands.

In addition, the collected lumber 1 is used for umbrella sticks, walkingsticks, smoking pipes, and make-up and hair-cut tools such as combs,button of garments, indoor decoration tools such as flower pots andpicture frames, cooking tools and eating tools such as containers foreating, wooden ladles, dippers, chopping boards, grip handle of cookingknives, and handle of eating spoons, sanitary tools such as bath tabsand bath tab covers, playing tools such as combination woods,fabricating playing tools, and playing wood blocks, sporting goods suchas frame of tennis rackets, table tennis rackets, frame of-badmintonrackets, and golf club heads, instruments such as guitars, mandolins,violins, pianos, and organs, stationery such as drawing boards anddrawing stands, pallets for transportation, railroad ties, handle ofsaws, and temporary materials such as frames for scaffolding, poles forscaffolding, handle poles for scaffolding, step boards for scaffolding,and shuttering.

As described above in detail, the collected lumber 1 described in thefifth embodiment has annual ring patterns N, cross grain patterns, orstraight grain patterns on the end face 160 or longitudinal side becausethinned-out woods 2 are pressed and compressed for molding the annualring of thinned-out woods, the collected lumber 1 exhibits the uniquedecorative effect, and therefore, the collective lumber 1 is used forwide range products in the form of as it is or boards manufactured bycutting the collected lumber 1.

The collected lumbers 1 are obtained by carrying out a series oftreatments including the softening step for subjecting the plurality ofthinned-out woods 2 to the heating treatment by the water vapor heatingdevice 10, the hot water 21 in the water tank 20 or the high frequencyheating device 30, the adhesive spreading step by the compressivelymolding apparatus 40, the compressively molding step, and the fixationtreatment step, if necessary. Accordingly, if the number of thethinned-out woods 2 is suitably selected, various kinds of the collectedlumbers 1 can be obtained.

Further, since the collected lumbers 1 to the fifth embodiment aresubjected to the fixation treatment after the thinned-out woods 2 havebeen adhered to each other through the adhesive, the shape thereofaffects the compressive molding of the thinned-out woods 2 whileadhering them to each other through the adhesive can be heldpermanently. Thereby, the collected lumber is excellent in itsmechanical and thermal characteristics, abrasion resistance, chemicalresistance and dimensional stability. A curing time which has beenheretofore about one week can be shortened to about one hour, wherebythe productivity of the collected lumbers 1 can be remarkably improved.

Further, in the collected lumbers 1 according to the fifth embodiment, aseries of the steps including the softening step, the adhesive spreadingstep by the compressively molding apparatus 40, the compressivelymolding step and the step of fixation treatment can be carried outimmediately after the thinned-out woods 2 have been barked, whereby itis not necessary to carry out machining such as chamfering in advance inthe stage of thinned-out woods as has been done, but the collectedlumbers 1 with less cost can be produced. The series of treatments areapplied to the thinned-out woods 2 with bark to produce the collectedlumber 1, whereby more cost saving is achieved.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment,but it is of course noted that various improvements and modificationscan be made without departing the subject matter of the presentinvention. For example as shown in FIG. 37, while the collected lumbers1 according to the fifth embodiment have been explained taking anexample of collected lumber having a rectangular parallepiped shape, itis apparent that if a shape of the mold of press 46 and the like usedfor the compressively molding apparatus 40 is variously changed,collected lumber having various shapes as desired can be obtained.Bamboo material is the equivalent of wood material described in thepresent invention, similarly to wood, molded trachea pattern orfibrovascular bundle pattern is maintained similarly to annual ring ofwood.

(Sixth Embodiment)

A collected lumber 1 according to the sixth embodiment will be describedreferring to FIG. 41. This collected lumber 1 is manufactured bycompression molding of bamboo material of longitudinal cut PhyllostachysPubescens Mazel instead of thinned-out wood 2 of conifer trees, andmanufactured with different percentage of compression set forcompressively molding process. In FIG. 41 of the collected lumber 1,bamboo materials 161 which are molded variously are bonded together withadhesive 3 to form a prescribed shape, on the end of lumber of thecollected lumber 1 the ends of the bamboo materials is exposed toexhibits the decorative effect.

The collected lumber 1 is manufactured by the same series of successiveprocesses as used in the fifth embodiment, that is, the softening step,adhesive spreading step, compressively molding step and fixing step.Since these steps are carried out in the same manner as described in thefifth embodiment, detailed explanation of these steps are omittedherein.

For the collected lumber 1, the hardness according to JIS Z 2117 of endof lumber 160 of the collected lumber 1 treated with a percentage ofcompression set of 35% is 5.3 kgf/mm², and the hardness according to JISZ 2117 of end of lumber 160 of the collected lumber 1 treated with apercentage of compression set of 40% is 6.8 kgf/mm².

The abrasion test A is carried out on the collected lumber 1 in the samemanner as described above, and the test resulted in the depth ofabrasion of 130 μm for the collected lumber 1 treated with a percentageof compression set of 25% and 45 μm for the collected lumber 1 treatedwith a percentage of compression set of 65%, in the abrasion test A onthe side surface of the collected lumber 1 in the longitudinal directionof bamboo materials 161 according to JAS (flooring).

Accordingly, the collected lumber 1 is cut in the radius direction ofthe thinned-out wood 2 to form boards, and the board is used as facingmaterial for various products. The collected lumber 1 is cut in thelongitudinal direction, when, the fibrovascular bundle pattern orpattern brought about from texture of bamboo exposed on the side surfaceof the lumber 1 exhibits excellent decorative effect, and the materialis used for wide variety of products (see FIG. 41).

(Seventh Embodiment)

Next, a collected lumber 1 according to the seventh embodiment will bedescribed referring to FIG. 42. The collected lumber 1 is manufacturedby compression molding of thinned-out woods 2 of conifer trees andbamboo materials of longitudinally cut Phyllostachys Pubescens Mazeltogether as shown in FIG. 42. In this process different percentage ofcompression set is used for the compressively molding step.

In FIG. 42 of the collected lumber 1, the thinned-out woods 2 molded tovarious shape and bamboo materials 161 are bonded each other with theadhesive 3 in a prescribed shape, on the end of lumber 160 of thecollected lumber 1 the annual ring pattern N of the thinned-out woods 2and the end face of the bamboo materials 161 are exposed in mosaicpattern to exhibits decorative effect.

The collected lumber 1 is manufactured by the same series of successiveprocesses as used in the fifth embodiment, that is, softening step,adhesive spreading step, compressively molding step and fixation step,since these softening step, adhesion applying step, compressivelymolding step, and fixation treatment step are carried out in the samemanner as described in the fifth embodiment, detailed explanation ofthese steps are omitted herein.

For the collected lumber 1, the hardness on the lumber end 160 of thecollected lumber 1 treated with a percentage of compression set of 35%is 4.6 kgf/mm² at the thinned-out wood 2 area and 5.4 kgf/mm² at thebamboo material 161 area, and in the case of the percentage ofcompression set of 50%, the hardness on the lumber end 160 is 6.2kgf/mm² at the thinned-out woods area and 7.0 kgf/mm² at the bamboomaterial 161 area. When the collected lumber 1 is cut in the radiusdirection of the thinned-out woods to form boards, the board can be usedas the facing material of various products. The collected lumber 1 iscut in the longitudinal direction, the cross grain pattern, straightgrain pattern, fibrovascular bundle pattern, texture pattern, and mixedpattern thereof are also exhibits excellent decorative effects, and thecollected lumber 1 is used for wide variety of products (see FIG. 42).

(Eighth Embodiment)

A producing device X for producing collected lumbers according toembodiments described herein before will be described referring to FIG.44. The producing device X is comprises an automotive vehicle and a setof equipment required to manufacture the collected lumber 1 startingfrom raw material of a plurality of cut down thinned-out woods 2 whichset of equipment is equipped on the vehicle.

The collected lumber producing device X according to the eighthembodiment will be described referring to FIG. 44. In FIG. 44, a saw 180to cut the thinned-out woods 2 to prescribed length is installed on therear area of the vehicle Y, and adjacent to the saw 180 a barker 181 toscrape off bark on the periphery of the thinned-out woods 2 isinstalled. One end of the conveyer 182a is provided in contact with thebarker 181, another end of the conveyer 182b is provided in contact withthe compressively molding apparatus 40 which is an equipment forsoftening the thinned-out woods 2, compression molding the collectedsoftened thinned-out woods 2, and then fixing to form the collectedlumber 1.

The compressively molding apparatus 40 has the same structure as used ineach embodiment described herein before. Equipment required forsoftening treatment, compressively molding treatment, and fixationtreatment such as a controller 183, boiler 184, and fuel tank 185 isprovided in the compressively molding apparatus 40, and on another endof the compressively molding apparatus 40 a conveyer 182b for deliveringmanufactured collected lumbers 1.

The saw 180 comprises a sensor for detecting the length of raw materialthinned-out woods, a movable rotary saw for cut raw material thinned-outwoods to prescribed length, and a conveyer for conveying cut rawmaterial thinned-out woods to the barker 181.

The barker 181 comprises scraping blades for scraping off bark of cutraw material thinned-out woods, and rotating-moving equipment forrotating and moving the raw material thinned-out woods.

The compressively molding apparatus 40 is an equipment for formingcollected lumber 1 from a plurality of preliminarily treated thinned-outwoods 2.

Next, Operation for manufacturing collected lumbers 1 using thevehicle-carried type collected lumber producing device X constituted asdescribed above.

Since thinned-out woods 2 cut down in the forest and collected aredifferent in length, it is required to cut thinned-out woods 2 to thesame length and to obtain collected lumbers with prescribed length.

First, the rear door of the vehicle Y is opened, raw materialthinned-out woods 2 are fed successively to the saw 180. In the saw 180,the sensor detects the length of raw material thinned-out woods 2 fedtherein, and the rotary saw is moved to the position so as to cut theraw material thinned-out woods 2 to a prescribed length. The thinned-outwood 2 cut down in the forest may be cut simultaneously in that place toa prescribed length, in this case, the saw 180 is not required for thevehicle-carried type collected lumber producing device X in accordancewith the present invention.

The thinned-out woods 2 cut to even length by the saw 180 is fed to thebarker 181. In the barker 181, bark is scraped off with the scrapingblades provided at the prescribed position of the baker with revolutionof cut raw material thinned-out woods 2. The scraping treatment ofthinned-out woods is preferable for enhancing the adhesion between thethinned-out woods 2, but by using a suitable adhesive for bonding it ispossible to obtain a certain adhesion strength using thinned-out woodswith bark. In this case, the baker 181 is not required.

The thinned-out woods 2 barked by the barker 181 is transferred to thecompressively molding apparatus 40 by the conveyer 182a. Before thecompressively molding apparatus 40, thinned-out woods are treatedindividually, but from this process a plurality of thinned-out woods arecollected, and each treatment is carried out on a plurality of collectedthinned-out woods 2 to manufacture collected lumbers 1.

The collected lumber 1 is obtained through the successive treatments ofsoftening treatment for softening the thinned-out woods 2 by heating aplurality of the thinned-out woods 2, adhesion applying treatment forapplying adhesive on the surface of the softened thinned-out woods 2 orsetting prepreg-like film adhesive or tube adhesive, compressivelymolding treatment for pressing and compressing the thinned-out woods 2applied with the adhesive 3 on the surface to form a collected lumberwith a prescribed shape, and fixation treatment for fixing the collectedlumber using heating water vapor or heaters in the compressively moldingapparatus 40. The detailed description of treatment processes carriedout in the compressively molding apparatus 40 is omitted herein, becauseit is understood referring to the description in embodiments describedhereinbefore.

When the treatment processes in the compressively molding apparatus 40is completed by finishing the fixation treatment, the collected lumber 1is obtained. On the end face of the collected lumber 1, variously moldedannual ring of the thinned-out woods 2 is remained. The collected lumber1 is delivered to the outside of the vehicle by the conveyer 182b, andloaded on tracks using a crane provided in front of the vehicle, andshipped out.

As described hereinabove in detail, the vehicle-carried type collectedlumber producing device X in accordance with this embodiment is providedwith the saw 180, barker 181, compressively molding apparatus 40 on theautomobile vehicle Y, and thus, the producing device X is moved to theproducing center of wood where raw material thinned-out woods arestocked, and collected lumbers 1 can be produced from thinned-out woods2. The producing device X can be moved to the producing center of woodwhere collected lumbers are produced, whereby transportation cost fortransportation of thinned-out wood 2 is greatly reduced, and alsocollected lumbers 1 with high added value can be shipped directly fromthe producing center of wood. Further, the collected lumber is producedonly by moving and fixing the vehicle Y, and the installation cost ofequipment is eliminated thereby. The series of treatment of thesoftening treatment for heating and softening a plurality of thinned-outwoods 2 with water vapor, adhesive spreading treatment, compressivelymolding treatment, and fixation treatment are all carried out in oneintegrated compressively molding apparatus 40, thereby greatly improvingthe working efficiency, and one compressively molding apparatus 40 cantreat all the treatments, resulting in that the equipment is easilyinstalled on an automotive vehicle.

Further, the vehicle-carried type collected lumber producing device X inaccordance with this embodiment, when producing collected lumber 1, thethinned-out woods 2 are bonded together with the adhesive 3 and thensubjected to fixation treatment, whereby the shape, which is formed bybonding the thinned-out woods 2 with the adhesive and by compressivemolding, is maintained permanently. By applying the present invention,conventional curing time of one week can be shortened to one hour, andthe productivity of collected lumber 1 is greatly enhanced.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment,but it is of course noted that various improvements and modificationscan be made without departing the subject matter of the presentinvention. For example in the collected lumber 1 in accordance with thisembodiment, it is obvious that collected lumber with desired variousshapes can be obtained by using molds of press 46 with various shapesfor the above-described compressively molding apparatus 40.

APPLICABLE FIELD IN THE INDUSTRY

As described herein above, the collected lumber in accordance with thepresent invention is a collected and unified thinned-out woodmanufactured through a series of processes of the softening a pluralityof thinned-out woods which is not worth using, adhesive spreadingtreatment, compression molding treatment, and fixation treatment.Accordingly, the collected lumber exhibits unique decorative effect onits surface, and excellent surface hardness and abrasion resistance.Therefore, the collected lumber of the present invention is useful forvarious products for building constituents.

We claim:
 1. A collected lumber produced by heating a plurality of woodsto soften said woods, compressing said softened woods in the presencetherebetween of a reinforcing member for interconnection of said woodsand an adhesive to thereby form said woods into a predetermined shape,and subjecting the formed wood body to a fixation treatment using aheating device.
 2. A process for producing a collected lumber,comprising:a first step of heating a plurality of woods to soften saidwoods; a second step of placing a reinforcing member for interconnectionof said woods between said woods and spreading an adhesive on surfacesof said woods; a third step of compressing said adhesive-spread woodstogether with said reinforcing member for interconnection to form saidwoods into a predetermined shape; and a fourth step of subjecting saidcompressed woods to a fixation treatment using a heating device.
 3. Theprocess according to claim 2, wherein said heating device for fixationtreatment uses heating water vapor for heating said woods.
 4. Theprocess according to claim 2, wherein said heating device for fixationtreatment uses a heater for heating said woods.
 5. A wood buildingmaterial comprising a piece of wood, wherein a straight grain in acompressively molded shape is exposed on at least one face of said pieceof wood.
 6. The wood building material according to claim 5, produced bylaminating a plurality of said pieces of wood in the presence of anadhesive after a fixation treatment, and clamping said laminated woodsunder pressing.
 7. A process for producing a wood building material,comprising:a first step of cutting a wood longitudinally at a pluralityof positions to obtain a piece of wood; a second step of heating saidpiece of wood to soften said piece of wood; a third step ofcompressively molding said softened piece of wood into a predeterminedshape; and a fourth step of subjecting said compressively molded pieceof wood to a fixation treatment, with a straight grain exposed on atleast one face of said piece of wood.
 8. The process according to claim7, further comprising the step of laminating said plurality of pieces ofwood after fixation treatment in the presence of an adhesive, andclamping said laminated pieces of wood under pressing.
 9. The processaccording to claim 7, wherein said heating treatment is carried out byheating with water vapor.
 10. The process according to claim 7, whereinsaid heating treatment is carried out in heating water.
 11. The processaccording to claim 7, said heating treatment is carried out byhigh-frequency heating.
 12. The process according to claim 7, whereinsaid fixation treatment is carried out by heating said pieces of woodwith heating water vapor.
 13. The process according to claim 7, whereinsaid fixation treatment is carried out by using a heater to heat saidpieces of wood.
 14. A collected lumber comprising a collected bodyformed from a plurality of woods with an adhesive between said woods,said collected body having annual rings of said woods left in variouslymolded-state on its end faces.
 15. The collected lumber according toclaim 14, wherein the collected body is produced by heating saidplurality of woods to soften said woods and compressing said woods. 16.The collected lumber according to claim 14, wherein the collected bodyis produced by heating said plurality of woods to soften said woods, andcompressing said woods, and subjecting said woods to a fixationtreatment.
 17. A collected lumber comprising a collected body formedfrom a plurality of conifer woods with an adhesive between said woods,said collected body having annular rings of said woods left incomplicatedly molded state at its ends, and said ends having a hardnessof 4.6 to 9.0 kgf/mm², as measured according to JIS Z
 2117. 18. Thecollected lumber according to claim 17, wherein said plurality of woodsare softened by heating and are formed by compressing.
 19. The collectedlumber according to claim 17, wherein said plurality of woods aresoftened by heating and are compressed with a fixation treatment.
 20. Acollected lumber comprising a collected body formed from a plurality ofbamboos with an adhesive therebetween, said collected lumber at its endshaving a hardness of 5.2 to 8.5 kgf/mm², as measured according to JIS Z2117.
 21. A collected lumber comprising a collected body formed from aplurality of conifer woods and bamboos with an adhesive therebetween,said collected body having annual rings of said conifer woods left incomplicatedly molded state at its ends, and said bamboos beingincorporated between said conifer woods.
 22. A collected lumbercomprising a collected body formed from a plurality of woods with anadhesive therebetween, said collected body having annular rings of saidwoods left in complicatedly molded state at its ends, and said collectedbody having a depth of abrasion of 25 to 170 μm after 500 revolutions,as measured for side faces having a longitudinal straight grain or crossgrain of wood according to the Abrasion Test A of JAS.
 23. The collectedlumber according to claim 22, wherein said adhesive comprises at leastone kind of member selected from the group consisting of phenolicresins, resorcinol resins and copolymers thereof.
 24. The collectedlumber according to claim 22, wherein said adhesive comprises a mixedresin containing 15 to 98% by weight of a phenolic resin and 2 to 85% byweight of a resorcinol resin.
 25. The collected lumber according toclaim 22, wherein said wood is at least one kind of wood selected frompine, Japanese red wood, Japanese cypress, Zelkova, Quercus acutissimaCarruthers, white oak and Siebold's beech.
 26. The collected lumberaccording to claim 22, wherein said collected body has at its ends ahardness of 4.6 to 9.0 kgf/mm², as measured according to JIS Z
 2117. 27.A collected lumber comprising a collected body formed from a pluralityof bamboos with an adhesive therebetween, said collected body having adepth of abrasion of 30 to 145 μm after 500 revolutions, as measured forits side face having a longitudinal fiber pattern of bamboo according tothe Abrasion Test A of JAS.
 28. The collected lumber according to claim27, wherein said adhesive comprises at least one kind of member selectedfrom the group consisting of phenolic resins, resorcinol resins andcopolymers thereof.
 29. The collected lumber according to claim 27,wherein said adhesive comprises a mixed resin containing 35 to 98% byweight of a phenolic resin and 2 to 65% by weight of a resorcinol resin.30. The collected lumber according to claims 27, wherein said bamboo isat least one kind of bamboo selected from the group consisting ofPhyllostachys pubescens Mazel, Phyllostachys reticulata Koch andPhyllostachys nigra Munro.
 31. The collected lumber according to claim27, wherein said collected body has at its ends a hardness of 5.2 to 8.5kgf/mm², as measured according to JIS Z
 2117. 32. A vehicle-carried typeapparatus for manufacturing a collected lumber, comprising on aself-running vehicle one or more devices for heating a plurality ofwoods to soften said woods, compressing said softened woods with anadhesive therebetween to form a collected body, and subjecting saidcollected body to a fixation treatment.
 33. The apparatus according toclaim 32, wherein said heating treatment is carried out by heating withwater vapor.
 34. The apparatus according to claim 32, wherein saidfixation treatment is carried out by using heating water vapor.
 35. Theapparatus according to claim 32, wherein said fixation treatment iscarried out by using a heater to heat said collected body.
 36. Theapparatus according to claim 32, comprising a saw for cutting woods to apredetermined length.
 37. The apparatus according to claim 32,comprising a barker for barking said woods.